The Fire-Proof Lock
by AquamarineDust
Summary: One day Lucy goes into a magic shop in hopes to find something special. Just when she was about to give up, the shop owner shows her a lock that cannot be damaged by fire. She buys it and a diary to go along with it. However, the one thing that she did not plan on was writing her heart into it. NaLu
1. Locks and Diaries

**Hello everyone! Since my last NaLu one-shot got some really good feedback, I decided to write down the other story I have been tossing around in my head. Again, apologies ahead of time if they are a little OOC.**

**DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima.**

* * *

Lucy wasn't sure what she had in mind when she was walking into the magic shop today, just to browse she supposed. There was a sale on potions, but the colors that they were glowing were rather suspicious, so Lucy decided to look at something else. Spell book? No, they were written in ancient text and that was more of Levy's area of specialties. Wands, no. Potion ingredients, no. Every-Flavor jellybeans, no. This was getting frustrating, all Lucy could find in this shop were items that she could get at any magic shop. She was really hoping to find something really special here, without breaking the bank.

"Excuse me, sir," Lucy asked the store owner.

"Hmm," the elderly man behind the counter responded with.

"You wouldn't happen to have any celestial spirit keys in stock, would you." Lucy asked trying to look as cute as possible.

"Celestial spirit keys, celestial spirit keys…" the shop owner muttered to himself as he looked through a list of stock, "sorry miss, I haven't had any of those on my selves in years. Not enough demand for them I suppose."

That was exactly what Lucy was afraid what was going to happen. She sighed. It was worth a try to ask, right? "I understand, maybe some other time," Lucy waved off as she headed toward the door.

"Wait," the shop owner exclaimed, not wanting to lose a potential sale, "I might have something that you might be interested in. Not many stores specialize in the kind of wares I'm about to show you."

That got Lucy's attention. Turning back around to face the counter, "What is it?"

"These," the owner hummed as he pulled out a wooden box out from underneath the counter. He fiddled with some keys to find the right one to the box. After unlocking it, he pulled back the lid to reveal three diary locks and their keys. A green one, a red one, and a blue one.

A little confused, Lucy questioned, "Locks?" What were so special about these locks, many stores specialized in selling them. Was she paying extra for the color as opposed to a metallic silver?

"Oh, don't be fooled miss. These are no ordinary locks, they are made of a strong metal alloys, can't be broken by blunt force. They are also charmed to be resistant to certain elements. Even elemental magic."

Lucy leaned in upon interest to get a better look.

Continuing his spiel about the locks, "The green one is resistant to plant related magic. The red cannot be melted by fire magic. Finally, the blue one cannot be rusted or broken by water." Owner smiled as he saw that Lucy was hooked. "Now unfortunately, I can only sell you one of these locks, because they are pretty popular."

Only one lock…

"Take your time now, miss. This isn't the first time people have had to make this type of decision. In fact, people have had to make this decision for six genera-" he was cut off.

"I'll take the fire resistant one!" The answer was obvious.

"Ok, that will be 3,500 jewels."

What? 3,500 jewels? That was half of her rent! Maybe she shouldn't have looked so eager… As much as it hurt her wallet, Lucy could not pass up an opportunity like this.

"Fine," Lucy reluctantly handed over the money, took the lock and, and left the store.

"Enjoy your new lock miss!"

Oh, Lucy had big plans for this lock. She ran up to the nearby bookstore and bought a new diary to attach the lock to. It was nothing flashy, no picture on the front, not a special shape, just a basic was exactly what Lucy wanted: A basic diary that would not draw the attention of her often uninvited guests. It was also the cheapest one in the store. The only thing that made the book stand out any was the fact that the pages were pink inside. Other than that, the book would not look out of place with all her other books on her shelf.

'What's a better place to hide something other than in the open, right?' Lucy thought to herself, feeling rather sly. Like always, Lucy walked on the edge of the riverbed and the men on the boat warned her that it was dangerous.

After walking for a while, Lucy finally reached her apartment. Carefully opening the door, she called out, "I'm home!"

No response. That was a good sign. Getting to work, Lucy replaced the original lock from the diary with the new one that she had bought from the magic shop. Before placing the book on the shelf, Lucy gave the lock a good tug to make sure that is actually locked. Now that the book had a place on the shelf, Lucy had attached the key along with her celestial spirit keys because she felt that it was safer there than somewhere in her appartment. With everything put away, Lucy felt like writing. Walking to her writing desk, she pulled out a fresh sheet of paper.

_Dear Mama,_

_ Today, I bought a new fire resistant lock and diary to go with it. I know that the letters that I write to you seem like a diary, but don't worry, that is not what I bought the lock and diary for. There are some story ideas that I really want to write down, but they are not ready to be read yet. Natsu and Happy like going through my stuff a lot and often read some of my stories before they are even finished. Hopefully with this new lock I'll be able to finish a story without anybody reading it before it is ready. Though, I really want to save it for a really special story. I really wish that you could read it._

_Love, Lucy_

_P.S. _

_I think you would have really liked Natsu and Happy if you had the chance to meet them._

The letter was shorter than most of the ones that Lucy wrote to her mother, but it felt good to get her thoughts down on paper. Like all the others, Lucy folded and sealed the letter to be put away with the rest. Just as her hand left the letter, a certain dragon slayer came barging in the room.

"YO! Lucy! What are you doing? You should come play with us," Natsu exclaimed when he saw Lucy at her writing desk.

"Aye!" agreed Happy as he followed Natsu into the room.

"I just finished writing a letter to my mother," Lucy felt comfortable sharing that information with Natsu. Afterall, he did know about that habit of hers anyways.

"Oh, ok. What do you want to do since you're done," Natsu asked.

Lucy stopped and thought about that, her rent was due soon and she was now short on how much she needed because of her previous purchase. "Do you think we could go on a job? I need to pay my rent soon."

"Huh, another one," Natsu questioned, "I thought we just went on one with good pay. I remember because you were happy that we didn't get any of the prize taken away this time."

Shoot. She had forgotten about that detail.

"Well, um, I went shopping earlier and bought something that was more expensive than I was expecting."

"What was it that you bought Lucy? Was it a fish," Happy asked, "because if you wanted fish, you can just go fishing with me and Natsu."

"It wasn't a fish."

"Then what did you buy, Luce," asked Natsu.

"Just...some writing supplies," Lucy decided to answer with, it was technically true.

Natsu thought Lucy was rather nervous with that answer, "If it was just writing stuff, then why do you seem so nervous with telling me?"

She was cornered. Lucy knew that she just had to change the subject. "You know what," she started off as she headed toward the door, "I think I'll take a solo mission." Before walking out the door Lucy said smiling, "See you later."

"Lucy, wait!" cried Happy, "We wanna come with you!"

"Yeah, you can't just leave on a mission without us. We're a team," added Natsu.

"Then you better hurry up, because I'm ready to go," Lucy teased.

"Alright, we're coming," Natsu said as the ran toward the guild to pick out a new job.

* * *

"I am-" Natsu fought back down the urge to throw up, "never...going on a train...again." He collapsed on the side of the train station when they were back in Magnolia.

"Natsu, you say that every time," Lucy tried not to laugh at her best friends, because he really did hate transportation of any kind. "Anyways, thanks for going with me."

Natsu recovered some and replied with, "Of course, we're partners after all."

"Right." Lucy knelt down to the collapsed Natsu, "Are you going to be okay, Natsu? I want to to head home and take a shower."

"Yeah," Natsu held up his finger, indicating to wait a moment, "I'll be...fine!" Just like that Natsu was back on his feet with his signature smile. "I'll meet you back at the guild, okay?"

"Aye!" added Happy.

"Yeah, I'll be right over!"

* * *

After her shower, Lucy decided she wasn't going to go to the guild right away. She actually got a really good story idea in the shower and wanted to write it down before she forgot it.

'I think I'll write it down in the diary, it does seem like a work in progress so far,' Lucy thought.

Without wasting any time, Lucy had opened the diary onto her writing desk. She left the first page blank to write in a title later. Her quill pen was inked and ready and she started off with a classic story opener:

_Once upon a time, there was a princess that ran away from the royal castle. Many people in the castle were surprised that she left. Afterall, she was everything a princess was supposed to be: pretty, kind, and smart. But she was tired of having every decision in her life being made for her. So one day she decided for herself that she was going to have her own adventure, like one in the stories her mother, the queen, had used to read to her._

_After much traveling, the princess found her way to a forest right outside of a harbor town. She hoped that this town was the first step to take her to a land where she could make real friends and go on many adventures with them. A wizard who lied about being from that land appeared in front of her. He tried casting a spell on the princess to trick her into going with him. Then, a dragon that was just passing by made eye-contact with the princess and unknowingly broke the spell. The dragon got very mad at the wizard who lied about being from the faraway land and breathed fire at him for lying. After unintentionally saving the princess, he heard what he called "home" is where the princess wanted to go. He took the princess there. The two grew closer and closer with every adventure they had together. Then, little by little, the princess fell in love with the dragon without even knowing it. The dragon and princess got married years later and lived happily everafter._

Lucy stopped writing there because her flow of inspiration had stopped. She decided to read what she just wrote to see what could use some improvement.

"I feel like this is really familiar somehow…" Lucy thought out loud. Thinking and thinking, trying to place where she heard this story before, it had come much too easily to be a coincidence. "A princess...falling in love… with a dragon…" most stories she read with those characters normally had the dragon slayed in the end. "Dragon slayed... Dragon... _slayer_?" Lucy could not believe it, so she reread and reread the story over and over again. As much as Lucy wanted to, she could not deny it. She had just taken her and Natsu's story and turned it into a romantic fairy tale. What was she going to do? She couldn't bring herself to tear out the page she had written on, because every time she did , her eyes would fall on that last line and her heart would beat a little faster.

'Just… start writing something else!' Lucy thought. 'I'm sure I can get my mind off of that story in no time," she turned to the next clean page. 'What to write? I know! Since no one other than me is going to read this diary anyways, I can practice my author's signature in here!'

_Lucy Heartfilia _she filled the first two lines with.

'Me and Natsu...' Lucy couldn't get her mind off of it. She continued signing her name for two more lines. 'Can you actually imagine, me and Natsu… _married_?' She kept writing. Before long Lucy noticed she had already filled two pages. Though she did not realize what she was writing.

The first four signatures where _Lucy Heartfilia _then they were followed by _Mrs. Lucy _that one was not too bad. Though after that, the rest of that page and all of the back was filled with _Mrs. Lucy Dragneel, Mrs. Lucy Dragneel, Mrs. Lucy _ _Dragneel..._

SLAM! Lucy shut and locked the diary. That was enough writing for one day! She shoved the diary back on the shelf, walked to her bed, and fell onto to it face first. She felt like her face was going to leave scorch marks on her pillow. 'Wait, scorch?' she mentally screamed. Great, now everything was reminding her of him! Lucy buried her face even deeper into her pillow. She had to admit it. She, Lucy Dragn- HEARTFILIA, had admitted that she was in love with her best friend, Natsu Dragneel. On paper.

**Oh my gosh, that turned out MUCH longer than I expected. This was originally going to be a two page one-shot. But it turned out to be a little over four pages, with type-10 font… Hands down, Lucy writing stories about a princess falling in love with a dragon is my favorite NaLu headcanon. Anyways, I thought it was getting too long for a one-shot and decided to make it a two-shot. The next chapter will follow Natsu more. Much love to everyone!**


	2. Curious Natsu

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima.**

Natsu was back at the guild waiting for Lucy to come by. He waited for a good two hours and Lucy still hadn't shown up yet. He was getting bored of waiting rather fast. Natsu already ate, fought with Gray, ate again, fought with Gray again, stared into space. He looked around for Happy, who was trying to offer Carla a fish, but with no avail. He put his head down on the table

"What's wrong, Natsu?" Mira asked as she cleared the plates that Natsu was no longer using.

"I've been waiting for Lucy for two hours and she hasn't come by yet." Natsu said without lifting up his head.

"Well maybe you should go check if she is okay," Mira suggested, with a mischievous twinkle in her eye.

"Yeah, that's a great idea! Thanks" Natsu got up and started heading towards the guild door.

"Okay, be careful now," Mira waved off. She made her way towards Cana, refilling her beer. "I'm telling you, Cana, my matchmaking is going to cause those two to get together faster than when your cards say."

"My card readings haven't been wrong, Mira," Cana started off, "you're going to owe me a lot of beer when you lose the bet of when they become a couple."

* * *

Natsu climbed through Lucy's apartment window like always. He was about to jump right in when he saw that Lucy had fallen asleep on her bed. Was she really that tired from that last mission? He decided to be more careful when climbing in this time to not wake her up. What was he going to do until she woke up? He already ate so raiding her kitchen was not an option. Walking around the apartment seemed like a good idea. He walked around picking up and looking at random objects, then setting them back down. That got boring really fast. He figured if Lucy was taking a nap, he was going to take one too. So he climbing in on the side that he normally slept on, even though he always got kicked out when Lucy woke up.

Half an hour passed and Natsu woke up in a haze and saw that Lucy was hugging him in her sleep. 'Probably cold again.' ¹ Natsu thought and he wrapped one of his arms around her to keep her warm. It was early spring, but Natsu had no sensitivity to temperature change and had no idea what was considered cold. Natsu looked down at Lucy. She was smiling in her sleep. 'She's rather cute when she smiles...' he absent mindedly thought before going back to sleep.

About ten minutes later, Natsu was rudely awakened by Lucy's screaming and her attempt to untangle herself from him. "Wh-what are you doing?"

"I was sleeping."

"What I meant is what are you doing here," Lucy's face was a very bright pink that took up most of her face.

"You took too long to meet me at the guild," Natsu stated, "so I came here. But you were napping so I decided to take a nap too."

Lucy slapped herself for forgetting to meet Natsu at the guild, "Right, I was supposed to meet up with you… Why were you hugging me earlier?"

"I woke up and you were hugging me in your sleep, I thought you were cold again," no lying there.

"I-I was? When I woke up it felt like- Nevermind!" Lucy cut herself off before finishing that sentence, her face only getting pinker. She was going to say it felt like they were a married couple, but she did not want Natsu to know that.

"Okay?" Natsu thought Lucy was being weird again. "Do you still want to go to the guild?"

"Yeah, let's go!" Lucy grabbed her keys and attached them to her belt. Though her walking pace did seem faster than usual today. Along the way, Lucy still walked along the edge of the riverbed in an attempt to focus on something else entirely.

"Hey, Lucy?"

"Hmm," Lucy responded with, trying to not break her concentration of keeping her balance.

"What were you going to say about what waking up felt like?"

Caught off guard by the question that she had been trying to forget, Lucy's concentration broke and she started to fall of the edge toward the water. Natsu quickly responded and wrapped his arm around her waist before Lucy fell into the water.

"We told you that was dangerous, Lucy," called one of the boatmen, "You're lucky that your boyfriend was with you to catch you!"

"B-boyfriend?!" Lucy squeaked with her blush returning.

"Boyfriend?" Natsu said with a I-don't-get-it face and his arm still wrapped around Lucy's waist. "Were they talking about me?"

"I don't know, maybe," Lucy screamed a bit, "Can you let go of me now?" After being let go, Lucy walked off a bit, then she stopped, "Th-thank you for catching me," then she continued walking.

"No problem. We're friends after all," Natsu smiled.

"Right, _friends._" the emphasis on the last word was more for Lucy than for Natsu.

In a matter of minutes they had reached the guild. "Hi everyone!" Lucy greeted when she walked in.

"Hi Lucy," said Happy as he flew towards his friends, "Natsu, where did you go?"

"To pick up Lucy, she was taking too long."

"Oh, Lucy, I'm glad that you're here." Said Mira when she saw Lucy. She was secretly disappointed that she and Natsu did not walk in hand-in-hand together. "A job came in that would just be perfect for you, here." What was being asked on the flyer could have easily been done with her spirits and the pay was pretty good. "It looks like a solo job though."

"I just did a job, but it might be good to have some extra cash… Okay, I'll do it," Lucy said accepting the job.

"What am I supposed to do until you come back," asked Natsu when he saw that the job was going to have Lucy out of town for a whole day.

"I'm sorry Natsu," Lucy said, it was very rare when she took solo missions, most jobs she took with Natsu, "but it will only be for one day. Do you think you can manage?"

"Yeah, I think I'll be fine."

"Okay," Lucy looked at the flyer, "Oh, I need to catch a train in an hour if I'm going to be there on time!" Lucy turned to leave, but stopped. "Happy, if you make sure Natsu doesn't burn anything in my house when I'm gone, I'll use some of the reward money to buy you a fish."

"Fish? Aye sir!" Saluted Happy.

"Hey! When have I ever burned anything at your hou- nevermind"

Walking back to the bar, Mira heard Cana say, "Hey, Mira. I thought you were trying to hook 'em up. Wouldn't it be better to send them on a mission together?"

"It would seem that way, but the distance will pull them together after missing each other," Mira stated.

Cana was not sure if it was the beer, but she could have sworn hearts were coming off of Mira.

* * *

Back at Lucy's apartment, Natsu and Happy decided to crash there for the night. Natsu laid down on the bed even though he had no intention of going to sleep yet. "I get to sleep in Lucy's bed without being kicked out when I wake up! Like earlier today" Natsu had no idea what double meaning his words had when out of context.

"We didn't stay here last night," Happy recalled.

"Not this morning," Natsu corrected, "when I picked her up. She was napping so I decided to take a nap too. Then she hugged me in her sleep."

"She lllllllllikes you," teased Happy. If only he knew the truth behind these words.

"Nothing like that, Happy. She was probably cold. She did act weird when she woke up though. Her face was redder than usual. Happy! Are you even listening?"

Happy had gone off to some remote area of Lucy's apartment. "Natsu, look what I found!" said Happy pulling out the diary from the shelf.

"What is it, Happy," asked Natsu getting up from the bed.

"It looks like a diary," stated Happy. "Maybe we should put it ba-"

"No way! Why would Lucy keep a diary? Aren't they books that girls put their secrets in?" Natsu grabbed the book from Happy's hands.

"It has a lock on it," observed Happy. "I don't think Lucy would be happy if we opened it. She gets really scary when she's mad."

"Hmm… You're right… But I want to know what's in it!" Whinned Natsu.

"Why? Do you llllllllike Lucy and want to see if she writes about you?" Happy then pitched up his voice to pretend he was Lucy, "Dear Diary, I love Natsu and want to have 30 eggs with him!" Happy started making kissing noises.

"N-NO," shouted Natsu as he tried to pull the lock with blunt force. It would not budge. "That's weird. Well I guess I'll have to use a stronger approach." Natsu lit a small flame on his index finger, "I'll just melt it off!"

Happy stopped making kissing noises when he saw the flame. For this fish! "No, Natsu, you can't do that!"

Natsu, "Why not?"

"Um, uh, Lucy will know you read it if the lock is melt- It's not melting!"

"What!? What the hell is this lock made out of!"

"Well, I guess we'll never know what's in that diary," Happy said nonchalantly. "Let's go to sleep," he said with a yawn.

"Yeah, okay," said Natsu as he set the book down.

* * *

The next day at the guild, "Yo, Ice Princess!"

"What did you call me, Flame Breath?!"

No one in the guild paid attention to their fight because it was the norm.

"I need you to do me a favor," said Natsu.

"What kind a favor," asked Gray, not liking where this is going. His trenchcoat had already disappeared at this point. Though it was not abandoned by a certain water mage.

"Make a key for this," said Natsu holding up the diary from the night before.

"What's this," Gray took the book, looking at it questionably.

"I found it in Lucy's apartment yesterday,"

Punch! "I'm not making a key for you ash-for-brains!"

Natsu punched back, "Why not, Icicle?"

"Because Lucy would kill me if she found out!" Gray could have sworn a demonic aura was coming out of Juvia after that statement.

"Oh, I thought it was too hard for you, Snowcone!"

"As if, Ice Make: Key! See?"

"Ha! I outsmarted yo-" Gray punched Nastu in the face again.

'Just to see if it works...' Gray unlocked the diary. Natsu tried to see what was in it, but Gray was keeping him arm's length away from it. 'Nope.' Gray was not trying to read it whatsoever, but the third page caught his eye. 'Mrs. Lucy Dragneel? She's got it bad for the idiot.' Gray shut and locked the diary before letting Natsu go flying.

"Did you see what was in it," asked Natsu.

"Just one page, and that was an accident," said Gray, he looked at the cover then back at Nastu, "I thought Lucy was smart." Though Gray supposed opposites attract. "Anyways, put this back where you found it," said Gray tossing back the small book.

"Gray-sama," said Juvia because she could not stand overhearing the conversation involving her love rival, "Juvia is curious about what is going on here.

"Come over here, Juvia," said Gray as she walked her away from Natsu.

Juvia became very happy when Gray was walking to talk with her, alone. She began to daydream when Gray broke her out of it.

"Natsu was trying to read what was in there," Gray pointed to the diary.

"What is that, Gray-sama?"

"Lucy's diary it looks like. Luckily he didn't see what's inside."

Juvia was not happy about her darling Gray holding her love rival's diary earlier. "I-if it's okay to ask, Juvia wants to know what is in Lo- Lucy-san's diary that Natsu-san could not see?"

Gray looked around, "If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone,"

"Juvia promises, Gray-sama."

"Ok," Gray leaned in towards Juvia's ear, and he could have sworn she tensed up. He whispered quietly, "Lucy wrote 'Mrs. Lucy Dragneel' all over a page."

It was official: Lucy was no longer Juvia's love rival.

"Juvia can see why Natsu-san should not have read that. Lucy-san would have been so embarrassed." Juvia said feeling empathy for Lucy since Juvia had done that herself. Only as 'Mrs. Juvia Fullbuster.' "Please excuse Juvia, Gray-sama." Juvia walked right up to Natsu. "Put that back where you found it, Natsu-san," Juvia threatened, she now had a new connection with Lucy and understood.

"Aye!" said Natsu as he ran out the door to put the diary back.

After Natsu left, Juvia realized something. Gray had whispered into her ear. 'Ah! Perhaps one day Gray-sama will whisper words of love into Juvia's ear...' Juvia was thinking happily into her newest fantasy.

**1. Read my other NaLu fanfic "Stupid Heater"**

**Oops, did I sneak in some Gruvia at the end? :) This was going to be a oneshot, then a twoshot… but I decided to make it however long I need to finish my original intent along with new ideas I get. Also, I do not think it is possible to write a NaLu fic with a guild scene without including Mirajane. Thank you for reading the chapter! Much love to everyone until next time!**


	3. Domestic Days

**Hello everyone! I hope that you have been enjoying the story up to this point.**

**DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima**

Lucy was thinking about the mission that she had done that day while riding back on the train. It was easy enough, but she had to admit it was rather… boring. Natsu and Happy did not go with her, nor did the other members of Team Natsu. Her train was scheduled to arrive in Magnolia in two hours and Lucy was lonely by herself in the train cart. She summoned Plue, it had been awhile since the last time she had called him.

Lucy looked out the window and saw that the sun was setting, "So pretty, I wish the others were here to see this." Well, most of her partners would be able to enjoy the sunset on the train, except Natsu. "Too bad. Sunsets are really romantic." It took a second for Lucy to process what she had just said, "Am I really still thinking about him like that?"

The only response that Lucy had to that question were Plue's normal sounds, which either sounded in agreement or confusion to the question. Lucy looked at the sunset again, "Maybe I should have found a hotel and stayed in town over night. At this rate it is going to be dark out by the time I get home." She just sighed and wanted the train ride to be over already.

* * *

Back at Lucy's apartment dwelled a very grumpy Natsu. The day before he had discovered Lucy's diary, but could not figure out what was in it because of Gray, then was threatened by Juvia soon after. "She knows that she can talk to me, so why the hell would Lucy keep a stupid diary?!"

"Are you still thinking about that, Natsu," asked Happy chewing on a fish. Unlike Natsu, Happy had given up on trying to figure out what was written in the diary. "I'm sure Lucy has her reasons and you just have to wait until Lucy tell you that she lllllllllllikes you," Happy teased for the uncountable time that day.

"That is not why I want to know what she writes in it," it was extremely faint, but there was a dusting of blush on Natsu's cheeks. "I just want to make sure she isn't dealing with any problems that she hasn't told me about!"

"Whatever you say, Natsu." Happy finished off his fish and sighed contentedly. "Goodnight, Natsu," Happy said as he settled himself on Lucy's bed.

"Goodnight, Happy, I think I'll stay up for a little longer." Natsu was trying his best to get that book out of his mind, but there was something that bothered him about it. Sure, Lucy can keep a diary, she loved writing and would probably say that it was to practice her writing style. That part Natsu did not mind, what did bothered him though was the fact that Lucy had gone as far as getting a fire-proof lock. The fire part was obviously not a coincidence. "Hey, Happy, when was Lucy supposed to be coming back?"

Happy rolled so that he was facing Natsu, but his eyes were still closed, "I think she was coming back today, but it's late. Lucy might have stayed there for the night."

It was getting late and getting dark outside, Natsu really did hope that Lucy was not traveling in the dark. She was notorious for being kidnapped. 'No, don't think like that,' Natsu thought, 'Lucy is strong. She would not give up without a fight.' Natsu smiled at this, he had seen Lucy grow so much since the first time he met her. She was no longer that girl that would try using her sex appeal to try and get out of a fight, now Lucy would stand up and fight for herself. 'That's my girl.' Wait, what? Natsu was confused about the way he just thought about Lucy. He blamed the past two days, everything about them had been weird. Maybe it would be better to just go to bed early and hope everything would be back to normal tomorrow.

* * *

When Lucy finally got off the train there was barely any light left and Plue had already gone back. "Shoot, I better hurry." Lucy walked quickly as possible to her apartment that would not cause any attention. However, there were still the perverts that would give her cat calls as she walked. To be honest, it really ticked her off now and she just ignored them. Luckily none of them followed her, but she still kept her hand on her keys if something were to happen. Unlike all the other times when Lucy walked home, she made sure not to walk on the edge of the riverbed. It was dark, she did not want to waste anytime getting home, and she had nearly fallen in the other day. Before opening the door to her apartment, Lucy checked her surroundings for anything dangerous. Nope, the coast was clear.

She turned the key and pushed the door open, "I'm home," she called out into the apartment. There was no answer, Lucy turned on the lights before walking in further into the apartment. Grabbing a set of pajamas, changing into them, and brushing her teeth, Lucy was ready to go to bed. The thought of her bed seemed so wonderful at the moment, she did not get to sleep at home the previous night and it was not comfortable where she stayed during the mission. However, she had no doubt in her mind that a certain dragon slayer had occupied her bed during her absence and was most likely still there. If she was a gambler, she would probably put all the money she just made toward that bet and she would have won big time after pulling back the comforter.

Normally, Lucy would have yelled at him to wake up and leave, but she did not have the energy for that after her long day. "Scooch over," Lucy whispered, not really expecting a response from Natsu who was deeply asleep. Surprisingly enough, Natsu did in fact move enough to the side for Lucy to fit in his sleep while mumbling what sounded like "Okay."

After carefully climbing in to not wake up Natsu, Lucy settled in the covers. "So warm," Lucy hummed, it was obvious that Natsu had been sleeping for some time now. Lucy turned onto her side so that she was facing the sleeping Natsu. Eventhough he would not be able to hear her at the moment, Lucy decided to talk about her day before going to sleep. "I succeeded on completing the mission and I'll tell Mira that tomorrow," Lucy started off, "then I took the train back." The word "train" managed to make Natsu groan in his sleep and he became slightly greener than before. Lucy chuckled, and stroked Natsu's hair to settle him down, she would not be cleaning off vomit tonight. "Sorry, should have known better," Natsu returned to his normal sleeping self. Lucy continued, "When I got off some guys were giving me cat calls as I walked home, it was really annoying." Lucy thought she saw Natsu scowl in his sleep, but it was gone as soon as it appeared. "But don't worry, I was ready to fight back if any of them tried to do anything," Lucy declared proudly. "Goodnight, Natsu."

Lucy was going back to her side of the bed, until she became wrapped up by Natsu's arms. One across her waist and the other holding her head into the crook of Natsu's neck. Lucy started blushing furiously. She was ready to accuse of Natsu actually being awake the entire time, but he was snoring the entire time she was talking. 'Don't freak out, he's just asleep and probably doesn't even know what he's doing. But, this actually feels… pretty nice,' Lucy thought. 'It's like we're a coupl- I need to stop thinking that! Oh, who am I kidding?' Lucy questioned. 'I like being held by him and can't deny it!' She was decided to just go to sleep and deal with the issue at hand in the morning and dozed off due to Natsu's warmth.

"That's my girl," Natsu mumbled in his sleep, smiling.

* * *

The next morning Lucy and Natsu were detangled from each other from some point during the night. Natsu was the first one of two to wake up. "Good morning, Lucy," Natsu said groggily rubbing the sleep out of his eye. Wait a second, "Lucy! You're back!"

Natsu's booming voice first thing in the morning had caused Lucy to nearly fall of the bed out of startlement. However, instead of yelling at Natsu to get out of her bed like any other morning, Lucy asked, "Do you have to be so loud first thing in the morning?"

"Huh? But I was just excited to see you, Lucy. I didn't get to see you for a whole day. Anyways, when did you get back? I didn't hear you come in."

'He was excited to see me? Wait, calm down, this is Natsu we're talking about here,' Lucy thought to herself. Despite what she told herself, her heart did beat a little faster.

"I came home sometime last night. You were already asleep and I didn't feel like waking you up."

"But that's never stopped you before, you always yell at me for sleeping in your bed," Natsu stated rather plainly.

"To be honest, I kinda gave up since you never seem to listen to me about that," Lucy sighed.

"Or maybe you didn't wake up Natsu because you llllllllllllike him," Happy laughed after listening to their conversation for a while. He did not hear any sound of embarrassment from Lucy nor Natsu. So Happy crossed his arms and put on a smug smile, thinking he had rendered them speechless from embarrassment.

"What do you want for breakfast since you're here," Lucy asked Natsu as they walked toward the kitchen, completely ignoring Happy's comment.

"I don't know. Do you have any bacon left? That sounds good," answered Natsu, also ignoring Happy's comment.

"What!? Natsu and Lucy are ignoring what I just said! Is my running gag becoming stale!?" Screamed Happy, breaking the fourth wall.

"A long time ago," Natsu and Lucy said in unison from the kitchen.

"Hurry up, Happy, or you're going to miss breakfast," Lucy called.

"Breakfast? Oh that's right," Happy exclaimed as he flew into the kitchen. "Lucy, I made sure Natsu didn't burn down anything… from your apartment. When can we pick up my fish?"

"Later today," Lucy said as she unwrapped the bacon, per Natsu's request, "I need to go grocery shopping anyways. Oh, this stupid stove isn't working!"

"Here, let me try," Natsu said as he held the skillet in one hand and over the other. He carefully heated up the pan so he would not ruin the bacon. "Nice and crispy! Stand back Lucy, Happy, it's going to start popping soon."

While Natsu was handling the bacon, Lucy decided to cut up some fruit to eat, since the stove was not working and they could not have pancakes like she had planned. Also, because she was missing ingredients like flour and eggs, Lucy was not kidding when she said she needed to go grocery shopping. "Happy, could you set up the table, please?"

"Aye sir!"

After the bacon was cooked and the fruit was sliced, everyone sat down at the table and ate. There was a lot of bacon. A lot. Natsu had cooked the entire package and naturally he had the biggest helping of it.

Breaking the silence, Happy asked, "Why were you two cuddling last night?" This caused Lucy to start coughing from her juice and Natsu to drop any bacon he had from his mouth.

"WHAT!?"

Happy was unfazed by the reaction, "I had to use the restroom last night and you two were cuddling. The both of you looked so cute smiling the way you were!" Happy laughed like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen.

"You're, you're making that up! We did no such thing last-" then Lucy remembered what happened right before falling asleep. Regardless to say, she was quite pink at this point. "Night," the last part came out rather weak.

"Y-yeah Happy, you must have dreamt that," Natsu said rather nervously. Though, he did not understand why he was nervous. He and Lucy were friends and hugged plenty of times before. He had no memory of what happened after Lucy had come home last night.

"Are the two of you secretly dating?"

"No, we're not!" Lucy's hands flew up to her cheeks that were only getting pinker.

"Are you sure? I think I'm going to tell Mira your little secret!"

"Don't go telling lies, Happy," Natsu yelled.

"I don't think it's a lie, you two are obviously hiding something."

"No, we're not," Lucy said once again. "How would you like if we told people you and Carla were- Wait, you'd like that," her plan backfired. But then she got an even better plan, "You know, I don't feel like buying fish today."

"What? No! You promised," Happy protested.

"You were about to tell Mira something that was not true, no fish is your punishment."

"Okay, I won't tell Mira that you and Natsu are a couple," Happy agreed. Lucy smirked in triumph. "But I will tell her that you two were cuddling, and that's the truth!"

"GET BACK HERE!"

* * *

Happy did not get fish that day when the three of them went down to the open air market. Lucy got the basics that she needed, like flour and eggs. Then whatever foods Natsu would throw into the wicker basket. It got a little too heavy for Lucy to comfortably carry, Natsu noticed this and insisted on carrying the basket from there on out, since the main reason why it got heavy was because of him. Needless to say, any fish that Happy did try sneaking into the basket was sent right back, after an apology to the vendor. Much to Happy's dismay, Natsu was on Lucy's side every time he tried sneaking in said fish.

However, during their walk through the market, the diary had never fully left Natsu's thoughts, but he was not going to ask at the moment.

"Good morning, youngins," a vendor man called from his booth. Natsu and Lucy took a quick glance at his wares from where they were standing. Not seeing anything they were interested in, they waved him off and kept walking. "Wait, young man, don't you want to buy a gift for your girlfriend?"

Once again, Lucy and Natsu had been mistaken for being a couple, only this time it was Lucy's turn to be identified as such. "G-girlfriend?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Natsu said.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the vendor started off with, "I just assumed because you both looked so young." What did that have to do with anything? "Your _wife._" Oh.

"Sh-she's not my wife either," Natsu said a little too loudly and his face started to match his hair. He turned away from the vendor and started walking forward, "L-let's go Lucy. Lucy? What's wrong?"

Lucy's face was in complete shock and the darkest shade of pink before people could start calling it red. The vendor's comment only reminded her of the third and fourth pages of her diary, '_Mrs. Lucy Dragneel Mrs. Lucy Dragneel Mrs. Lucy Dragneel...' _was the only thing that Lucy could think of, along with wedding bells in the background.

"Y-yeah, l-let's j-just g-go n-now," Lucy stuttered and started walking rather mechanically.

"Are you sure you're going to to be okay," Natsu asked concerned.

"Y-yeah."

"She llll-" Happy was cut off.

"Not now, Happy!" Lucy yelled after snapping out of it. The blush was long ways away from dying down anytime soon.

**Hi again! Thanks for reading. Sorry that this chapter was a bit slower than the last two, I just needed transition between Lucy's departure and returning from the mission. It's 2 AM when I'm writing this and I want bacon now.**


	4. Unexpected Help

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I did change how Juvia talks in this chapter from her previous appearance. I'm just using English equivalences for -san and -sama just to make reading the story flow better.**

**DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima**

Natsu, Happy, and Lucy returned from the market to put everything away before heading towards the guild. Lucy's blush had died down a bit, but it was still noticable.

"Hey, Lucy," said Natsu, "are you feeling sick? Your face is really pink."

"I'll be fine," answered Lucy. "I think I just need to lay down for a bit. But let's put the food away first," Lucy forced a smile to hopefully chase away Natsu's worrying.

"Okay, If you say so, Lucy," said Natsu, he trusted Lucy and if she just she just needed to rest for a while, then he would take her word until proven otherwise. He started putting away food items that were in his share of the basket, "Where do you want these?"

"Over there is good," said Lucy pointing in the general direction behind Natsu.

Natsu pulled back the door to the pantry and discovered Happy happily munching on a fish. where did Happy get a fish? "Buddy, where did you get that?"

"At the market. Do you want some Natsu?"

"Wait, I gave back all the fish you tried putting in the basket. When did you get that," asked Lucy when she remembered that she did not have any fish in her house before leaving for the market.

"When you were talking to that vendor that thought you were Natsu's wife," Happy said rather plainly.

Lucy's face went back to being back to the deep pink back from the market. "I'm going to take that nap now!" She screamed as she headed toward her bedroom falling face first onto her pillow.

* * *

"Lucy, wake up."

Lucy snuggled deeper into the covers.

"Lucy, wake up."

She turned onto her side.

"Lucy, wake up or I'll eat all the food we bought today."

That woke her up. "Okay, okay. I'm up. I'm up."

"You've been asleep for over an hour now. Can we go the guild now," asked Natsu.

"Yeah, we can go in a little bit, just let me get ready." Lucy headed towards the bathroom to get ready. "Say, where's Happy?"

"He went on ahead without us, wanted to share what was left of his fish with Carla."

"So, it's just the two of here," Lucy asked turning a little pink. How many times had she blushed today? It was really annoying and she wish that her face would just stop turning pink at the smallest things.

"Yup, and soon it will be us and everyone at the guild once we get there." Natsu smiled.

"Yeah, it would be good to see everyone at the guild," Lucy agreed. "I'll be out in a few minutes." She closed the door behind her. It was a good thing that Lucy had decided to get ready first as opposed to leaving right after waking up from her nap. Her hair was a mess and needed to be brushed out and the ribbon that she used to hold up her side pony tail was falling out. Not to mention that her clothes needed to be straightened out. If anybody had seen her walk out of her apartment with Natsu and she had not fixed herself up first, they may have thought that they had been doing-

'Don't have those kinds of thoughts,' Lucy thought to herself 'We're not even marri- When will this stop?'. To get her mind off of things, Lucy brushed out her hair quickly as possible, that would not rip out her hair in the process.

"Hey, Lucy," Natsu knocked on the door, which was rare. "Is everything alright? You've been in there for a long time. Are you having constip-"

"No, I am not!" Lucy screamed from the other side of the door.

Pushing the door open, Natsu came inside the bathroom to check up on Lucy. Her face was red, probably from the screaming Natsu thought. "Is something bothering you, Lucy? You have been acting weirder than usual the past few days. Natsu was dense, but he would have to be a complete idiot to not notice Lucy's continuous behavior the past few days. She has not told him anything about it and maybe it would answer why she had that diary to begin with.

Lucy had been called out on her strange behavior by Natsu and she could not just brush it off by saying that she was fine, because she was not. However, she was definitely not going to tell him the direct cause of it. It would be too… embarrassing and even Natsu could figure out what 'Mrs. Lucy Dragneel' written all over a page meant. So she decided to give him a more indirect answer until she could figure out her thoughts herself. "I've just been feeling weird lately and I can't exactly explain it right now," Lucy did not meet Natsu's eyes when saying this.

"Do you think you're sick? Should I go get Wendy?"

"No, no, it's not that kind of weird feeling, Natsu." She knew that she was not ill and did not want to cause even more worry by saying that she was. "I just… just don't know how to explain it right now."

"Okay, Lucy," Natsu said knowing he was not going to get much information out of her right now and would wait until she felt more comfortable. "But you do know that you can talk to me if something is bothering you."

"I know," Lucy softly smiled, "you're always there for me."

"Of course, now let's get going to the guild. Everyone is probably wondering where we are at."

* * *

As soon as the had entered the guild, Natsu picked a fight with Gray. Saying all the usual insults to each other, flames and chunks of ice flying through the guild.

Taking advantage of the distraction, Juvia walked up to Lucy, "Excuse me, Miss. Lucy, Juvia would like to invite you to her home for tea."

"Thank you for the invitation, Juvia, but I'm not really in the mood for tea," answered Lucy, remembering the last time she had been given tea from Juvia.

"Perhaps Juvia was not clear, you are going to Juvia's home for tea. There is no choice." With that said, Juvia started dragging Lucy toward Fairy Hills, avoiding all the debris coming from Natsu and Gray's fight.

* * *

Not much had changed in Juvia's apartment since the last time Lucy was there. Except that she had seemed to update the outfit on her Gray plushie.

Now Juvia had a small dilemma: she promised her darling Gray that she would not tell anyone what he told her about Lucy's diary; however, she wanted to help Lucy with her love issues. She was going have to be careful about how she approached this, and would have to get Lucy to tell her without letting Lucy that Juvia already knew.

"Juvia will make the tea now. Just make yourself comfortable, until Juvia comes back."

Lucy did question why Juvia suddenly invite her over and that she had not called her 'Love Rival' even once today. Something was off.

A few minutes passed before Juvia came back with the tea. "Miss. Lucy, please tell Juvia, is something bothering you?"

"Has my behavior really been that obvious lately?" Lucy asked, looking down with her hands on her knees.

"Yes," Juvia said very bluntly, "but that is okay, because Juvia thinks she knows why."

"You do?"

"Are you in love with someone, Miss. Lucy?"

That question made Lucy feel like her soul had temporarily leave her body so that she could see herself and she how hard she was blushing. Then it fell right back into her body. "I would say 'love' just yet… more like confused…" Lucy stared back into her tea cup like it was going to have all the answers to her problem at hand.

"What make you confused then?"

"Whether or not if it's just a crush that'll eventually pass or if it's the real thing."

"Who is it," Juvia asked, even though she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear Lucy actually say it before pressing on any further.

"Um…" Lucy looked out the window, thinking that he would be waiting right outside it.

Juvia took notice of this action, "If you are worried that he will hear you, do not worry. Juvia promises that no males can get into Fairy Hills. That is why Juvia brought you here."

"It's, um…" Lucy mumbled Natsu's name, but Juvia could not here Lucy say it.

"Sorry, what was that? Juvia could not hear."

"I said it was Na…" Lucy's voice fell.

"Na?"

"...tsu," Lucy finished. She had done it. She had said out loud that she likes Natsu in that way. It was rather broken up, but she still said his name.

"So you like Mr. Natsu, Miss. Lucy?"

Lucy dumbly nodded her head yes, still shocked that she was able to say it out loud at all.

"Do you know exactly when you started having these feelings?"

That was a tough question. Lucy did not think that the feelings happened over night. The more she thought about it, the more evident that she had slowly fallen for him, 'Just like in the story...'

"I can't think of a specific time really. I think… I think it just happened over time and I barely realized it."

"Juvia guesses that is normal. Afterall, she too was confused with her feelings for her darling Gray when she first met him…" Juvia smiled in fondness of the memory.

"Juvia? Juvia?"

Juvia snapped out of her daydream, "Juvia is sorry, Miss. Lucy. Juvia supposes that the next question is how did you realize your feelings?"

Lucy blushed and raised her left hand over her cheek and her right hand over her beating heart. "I-If I tell you, you have to promise not to tell anyone. Especially Natsu, or Mira, or Cana!"

"Juvia promises," Juvia already knew because Gray told her, but Lucy could not know that.

Lucy explained how on the second page she wrote about her and Natsu's first encounter and over all friendship in a short fairy tail version of themselves. Juvia only nodded and asked an occasional question to clear up references she could not figure out. She did not know about this part. An awkward silence passed before Lucy said what made it obvious to her, "I wrote 'Mrs. Lucy Dragneel' all over two pages in my diary…" Lucy oddly felt a weight lifted from her shoulders after admitting that.

"Oh, Miss. Lucy, Juvia just thinks that is romantic," Juvia squealed very much like when she is having one of her fantasies.

"You don't think it's silly?"

"Of course not, Miss. Lucy. Juvia understands and she also understands if you are not yet ready to confess to Mr. Natsu."

"Thank you, Juvia. Talking to you about this has actually made me feel better about the situation." Lucy finished off the tea that was left in her cup. "If you would excuse me," said Lucy as she got up from the couch, "I need to tell Mira that I was successful with my latest mission."

"Juvia will walk you back, she needs to make sure her darling Gray is alright after his fight with Mr. Natsu."

"Okay, hey Juvia," started Lucy, "why did you choose to invite me in the first place? Last time I was over you made my tea spicy," she questioned.

Shoot. That was a good point, "Juvia wanted to make it up to Miss. Lucy and be better friends with her," Juvia smiled. It was the truth, she no longer considered Lucy to be a rival in love and thought she could actually be good friends with her.

"Okay."

* * *

Back at the guild, Lucy went to the bar area to see if Mira was there, and she was.

"How was your mission, Lucy. Did you miss anyone," asked Mira with a rather mischievous look.

"The mission was a success, thanks for suggesting it Mira!" Miss anyone? Was this another one of Mira's attempts in meddling with people's love lives? "Well, I guess I did miss my team because I normally don't do solo missions," Lucy answered with, not falling for one of Mira's tricks.

"I suppose that is normal," replied Mira cleaning off one of the beer mugs that had been used by one of the guild members. "So tell me, did anything interesting happen on your mission?"

"Depends on your definition of 'interesting.'"

"How so?"

"The mission itself was easy, but afterwards I sorta ran into Dan Straight…"

**That's the end of this chapter! If you don't remember/ know who Dan Straight is, he is in the anime filler arc "Key of the Starry Heaven." Not my one of my favorite arcs, but it gives me an idea to work with here… But I'm not telling. Thank you for reading this chapter!**


	5. Story Time

**Hi everybody. Thank you everyone for making this my most followed fanfic ever.**

**DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima.**

"What do you mean 'sorta ran into' him, Lucy," asked Mirajane.

"Well…" Lucy began to remember and retell the encounter.

* * *

_Lucy thanked Virgo for helping her with her mission before Virgo returned to the Celestial Spirit World. She decided that it was time to meet up with the client to collect the reward. He said that his house was to the east of the market, so Lucy started heading in that direction. The market a wide selection of produce to choose from, but Lucy was not there to buy. She overheard a conversation off in the distance, well sounded more like an argument really. Probably someone arguing with the vendor about how something or other was too expensive and was trying to haggle for a lower price._

"_But Abigail-kins, can't you just see that fated love has brought us together? Let us marry at sunset, Abigaily-Wailie!"_

"_Get away from me! I told you already that I have a fiancé!"_

_Oh, Mavis, no! Lucy knew that string of odd nicknames and declarations of love anywhere! There was only one person it could be, Dan Straight. 'I've got get out of here before it's too late!'_

"_Abigail, my single flower in a meadow, how could you? I thought we had something!"_

"_We were never together!" After that, the girl named Abigail ran away to avoid making an even bigger scene than what already happened. She knocked Lucy down in the process, who too was trying to get away._

"_Oh, there is nothing in the world that can fill this gaping hole in my heart!" Dan declared. He then looked up and made direct eye contact with Lucy, "Be still, my heart! Do my eyes deceive me?"_

_Uh oh._

"_Those eyes! That mouth! That hair! That bosom! That waist! Those legs! I'd recognize them anywhere! Lucy-Meow Meow! Come into my arms!"_

_Lucy immediately began running the opposite direction, the client and reward could wait._

_Much to Lucy's dismay, Dan ran after her, "No need to be shy, Lulu, we can rekindle our love in no time and can be married before the moon rises!"_

'_Mrs. Lucy Straight...' That sounded horrible. What did she possibly do to deserve this a second time?_

"_Come now!_ _I saw a lovely café down this way, Lu-Chi!" Dan then started dragging towards said café._

* * *

_Lucy could not slip away at the café, so she was forced to engage into small talk with Dan._

"_So...Dan, I thought you were looking for pieces of the Infinity Clock to seal it away. Did you already finish that task?"_

"_Lucy, my little kitten, you know me so well," Dan gushed. Lucy mentally sighed, everyone in the Fairy Tail guild knew what the Legion Corps were doing. "But, alas, I have not yet completed my mission. I have crossed deserts, climbed many towers, scaled multiple mountains in search for even one piece of the Clock," Dan explained, complete with drawings of his journey. "I only came to this town to restock on supplies for my mission, but then I fell in love with a beautiful woman named Abigail… Then she broke my heart."_

_Lucy would have felt sorry for Dan if she did not know about his tendency to fall in love with a girl at a drop of a hat or see the 'break-up.'_

"_That's really sad," Lucy forced herself to say, "but I'm sure you're all ready to continue your mission, right?"_

"_No, no, not just yet, Lu-kins."_

"_Huh?"_

"_First we must be married! It only makes sense since fate has brought us back together. Love always finds a way."_

_A few people in the café awed and clapped, thinking it was a normal marriage proposal._

_Lucy could not just flat out say 'no,' the people in the café would think that she was completely heartless._

"_Dan," Lucy started off with, "it wouldn't work out between us. Our jobs simply keeps us too busy and makes us travel a lot."_

_Dan's smile disappeared into a small frown, but then it fell right back into a smile again. Why was he smiling? "You're right, Lu-Lily, now is not a good time to get married. I could never do that to you, make you feel lonely in an empty house with no husband present. I promise after I am done with my mission I'll come back for you, Lu-Love."_

_Just then, a waitress about fifteen came up to the table, "Excuse me, miss, you have a phone call waiting. Please come with me, if you would."_

_Phone call? This was a café, not a fancy restaurant. On top of that, no one who would call her does not know that she is here. Lucy simply nodded and followed the girl to the kitchen. She then saw Abigail from earlier._

"_I'm sorry for knocking you down earlier, I guess it's sorta my fault that you're here with him."_

"_No, no, it's okay. I don't blame you. I've met him before," Lucy grimaced at the memory._

"_You poor thing. Anyways, I'm going to help you get out of here."_

"_How?"_

"_My fiancé and I own this café, I can sneak you out the back."_

_The offer sounded tempting, but even though Dan was completely overbearing, he was a good person overall and was a good ally to have. Also, it would be a low just to blow him off like that._

"_Thank you for the offer," Lucy said, "but that would be mean to do. I think I can handle him."_

_Lucy started heading for the door. Abigail said , "Cough twice if you need the backdoor."_

"_Sorry about tha-" Lucy stopped in mid-sentence._

"_I can see us having a wonderful future together," declared Dan, clasping some girl's hand._

_Then one of of the witnesses from Dan's proposal to Lucy placed their hand on Lucy's shoulder, "When he comes back for you, say 'no.'" They wore a very sympathetic look._

_Lucy muttered a "Definitely" and walked out of the café taking advantage of Dan's distraction. When she was about ten feet away, she could hear Dan saying something about being heartbroken again. It did not matter, she knew he would be fine and made her way towards the clients house to collect the reward. Unfortunately for her, the time that she was with Dan and the time it took for her reward to be collected, Lucy had missed her early train back home. She decided to take the next one back. Lucy did not want to spend another day in town after today._

* * *

That is where Lucy finished talking about her mission. "So yeah, that's what happened."

"I can see why you were not worn out by the mission itself, Lucy. But still, it must have been nice to have been proposed to," Mira chuckled.

"Eh, not like that…" Lucy smelled something, "Mira, is something burning?"

**And scene. That's the end of this chapter, sorry that it was shorter than the others and was lacking in NaLu department and that I left it on another cliffhanger. Okay, maybe not so much the last one. I'll admit coming up with nicknames that Dan would use was a challenge. I'd like to thank ****xXME AGAINST THE WORLDXx****, Rose Tiger, ****skelekc****, OhtaSuzuke, ****xxAniAminexx****, LiveTake, SnowDragonSlayerTasha, ****JayandNya4evr****, Phantom54, ****TandK4ever****, FrostDragonSlayer, ****Pink-Fire-Dragon, and WhiteWinterStar**** for the reviews. Reading them really made my days when I read them.**


	6. Jealous Natsu?

**A new chapter two days in a row?! Warning, do not get used to that, I just had a sudden strike of inspiration.**

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima**

Mira and Lucy began looking around for the source of the burning smell. Mira went back into the kitchen and she said all of the food that was being stored there was fine. Lucy could not quite place where it was coming from.

"Oi, matchstick, cut out whatever you're doing. You're going to set that seat on fire," told Gray to Natsu. Lucy turned to look behind her and saw that Natsu was scorching the wood bench he was sitting in and was obviously not noticing what he was doing. Smoke was coming off from underneath him and Natsu wore an annoyed face that replaced his usual smile with a scowl.

"What are you talking about?"

"Stand up you idiot!" Gray punched Natsu across the face, knocking him out of the bench. Sure enough there was a black scorch mark with small embers perfectly showing where he was sitting. The bench was not the only thing that was burned, the top of the table where Natsu was resting his arms had also been burned by Natsu.

"You're going to burn down the guild, Flame Breath!"

"I wouldn't do that!" Natsu kicked Gray in the stomach.

"Gray, darling, are you alright," Juvia asked.

"Fine," Gray grunted, "but could you put out the bench Natsu burned? Before it goes ablaze?" Gray then returned his attention back to Natsu, "What the hell is wrong with you? You normally don't lose control like that."

"Anything for you, my sweet Gray," Juvia said.

"I don't know, that Dan guy just freakin' annoys me and he was harassing Lucy again!" Natsu was not happy that Lucy had been with Dan during her last mission. He should have gone with her even though it was a one person job. Even if he would have to take the train to get there. Just as long as to make sure he could protect Lucy if she needed it.

Mira looked at the scene with delight. All she was really planning was on having Lucy and Natsu miss each other by making them have some time apart, then crave the other's company when reunited. The events played out even better than she could ever plan. Lucy ran into someone who was obviously interested in her, luckily for her original plans that Lucy had no interest in Dan whatsoever. However, the best part of it all in Mira's eyes is that Natsu was actually _jealous._

Lucy came up from behind Natsu and gently placed her hands on both of his shoulders, "Natsu, please calm down, I promise nothing bad happened. It was more annoying than anything."

"You sure, Lucy? Because I can totally find him and kick his ass for you if you need me to!" He told Lucy while turning his head back to see her. Natsu's right fist was on fire, "I'm all fired up!"

This was almost too much for Mira, she passed a glance at Cana. Mira was smiling in a way telling Cana that her plan was working. Cana only smirked and returned to drinking to her beer. Much to Mira's dismay, she had to contain herself and remain composed for the situation. Well, Natsu did say that he was 'all fired up' Mira decided to add some fuel to the flame, "You know, Natsu, it's nothing to get jealous over."

"Who said that I was jealous!" Natsu's face slowly began turning pink. Though a person from a distance could have mistaken the blush for a part of Natsu's hair from a glance. "Someone bothered my friend and I don't like it!" He began waving his arms to his sides, Lucy decided it best to take a few steps back.

'Natsu couldn't actually be… jealous. Could he?' Lucy pondered in her thoughts. Lucy placed her hands in front of her mouth to hide it. She was… smiling? Was she actually smiling because Natsu was possibly jealous?

"Of course you're not," said Mira as she cleaned more beer mugs, smiling in an almost evil way. "Now could you please stop heading towards the door like you're going to hunt down this man?"

Natsu stopped walking, he did not even realize that his feet has started moving in that direction. Not only that, both of Natsu's hands were balled up into fists and he was walking in a very intimidating manner. "Th-that's not where I'm going," Natsu yelled. Well, maybe it was, Natsu was not really sure where he was going, but he sure seemed pretty determined to get there. "I'm just going out for a walk." A very angry walk.

"Lucy, do you think that you could keep an eye on Natsu, please," asked Mira. "I know he seems to calm down when you're around. We don't want half of the town destroyed during his little rampage." Lucy nodded and followed Natsu to wherever he was going. "Lisanna," Mira called.

"Yeah, sis?"

"You've known Natsu just as long as I have, would you say he was jealous?"

Lisanna giggled and smirked, "Oh, definitely." Lisanna then looked at the guild door that had just closed behind Lucy, "Luckily for Natsu, Lucy is someone that will always stand by him. Sis?"

"Yes, Lisanna?"

"I want to add more to my bet to when Natsu and Lucy finally get together," Just like everyone else in Fairy Tail, Lisanna had her hand in placing bets to when and how the two would get together, being third after Mirajane and Cana on how much she placed in. After all, she was betting based off of on how she saw Edolas Lucy and Natsu sometimes interact with eachother. "Don't be too mad when I beat you, sis," Lisanna teased.

"That's a bold statement there," Mira stated simply while returning back to serving the other guild members food and drink.

"That reminds me," said Gray, who recently placed a bet since the other day, "How much is the pot now?"

"I'll check in a few minutes, but last time it was a little more than 500,000 jewels," recalled Mira. Quite a large pot, especially nearly _everyone _in Fairy Tail placed something in it.

* * *

"Natsu, wait up," Lucy called in a small jog behind Natsu to catch up to him.

Natsu was still wearing a scowl on his face, but is softened when he saw Lucy. "Hey, Lucy," he looked away again, "sorry about what happened back there," Natsu said embarrassed. "I didn't mean to make a scene like that…"

Lucy stopped him there, "It's alright, I had a feeling that was going to happen."

"What? How?"

"The last time we saw, Dan," Natsu grimaced at the name, "you got really angry whenever he was around. I could tell that you really didn't like him."

"Well he was an idiot that couldn't take a hint that you didn't like him!" Now that was something coming out of Natsu, since he could not take a hint about his own feelings. "Then this time, he just plain forgot about you for some girl after saying he wanted to marry you!" Wait, if Natsu was jealous, would he not be happy about that? "Only a complete idiot would even think about forgetting you like that! 'Cause you're really awesome!" Yelled Natsu, unbeknownst of the heavy blush on his face.

'Is he actually blushing!? Oh my, Natsu is actually blushing! Is this a confession or something? What do I do? What do I say? What if I say the wrong things because I misunderstood what he meant? Is my face red? It has to be red right now. I bet he can hear my heart pounding right now. I think I might fall. Wait is he going to start talking again? Is he expecting a response from me? I don't know how to react!' Lucy's thoughts flooded her with questions that she could not answer.

Natsu continued with his little rant, that Lucy missed part of because of her thoughts, "Do you get what I'm saying Lucy? Huh, Luce, are you alright? You look all red, are you sure you're not sick or something?"

Lucy tried to play it off, taking a step, "I'm fi-" she could not even walk without tripping over her own feet. She was really in shock.

"Lucy!" Natsu caught her before her knees could even hit the ground. "Luce," Natsu said gently, wrapping his arms around her for support. Pulling her close, "are you sure you're not sick?" Natsu placed a hand on her forehead, even though he could not properly take her temperature. "I don't think you should out right now. Lucy?"

Lucy gazed up to Natsu's face and said in a very dreamlike tone, "I hear wedding bells."

* * *

"WOO! 638,267 jewels," whooped Cana. "That's going to buy me a lot of beer!"

"Now, Cana," scolded Mira, "you shouldn't count your chicks before they hatch," said Mira. She just announced what the pot was currently at because everyone kept asking. "Even if you do win, you have to share the winnings if someone shares a condition that you placed a bet on."

"Come on, Mira, no fun," pouted Cana. "I'll be sure to give you a nice tip when I order that round of beers."

The guild was busy as ever and to think that was only one set of bets that had been going on.

* * *

'What did I just say,' thought Lucy in horror. 'Please tell me that I did not say what I thought I said.'

"Yeah, I do too," agreed Natsu.

'Did he just? Does that mean? Can I say something then,' Lucy questioned herself.

"Natsu, I-" Lucy was cut off by the cheering of people. A wedding had just let out, she had literally heard wedding bells. So that's what Natsu meant.

"Throw the bouquet!" shouted some bridesmaid. All of the single women that had attended the wedding had lined up. To be honest, Natsu and Lucy were not sure why they were watching. They did not know these people and were a short distance away from the crowd.

"Okay, I will," said the bride as she turned around not to face the female crowd. She tossed the bouquet, but overshot the intended crowd. The hands of the bridesmaid clamoured for the bouquet that was out of their reach. The bride turned back around, "So, who's getting married next?" Then she saw that no one in the group had caught it. "Um… Where did it go?"

Everyone turned around to face a very confused Lucy, who was still in Natsu's arms, holding the bouquet that she had no idea how it got there. "Wh-what just happened?"

"You caught the that," said Natsu. "You didn't even need to reach out for it or anything. It just landed in your arms." He was grinning a very goofy smile, proud of Lucy's great catch, even though he did not think about what catching the bouquet meant.

"Oh, that's not fair," complained the same bridesmaid that told the bride to throw the bouquet. "Some girl that just happened to be walking with her boyfriend is going to get married before me!"

Lucy's entire face and now her ears were burning. "Y-you know what? Y-you're right, it's not fair," said Lucy rather shakely. "H-here," she clumsily threw the bouquet back to the group of girls. "C-can we go back to the apartment, Natsu?" All Lucy wanted to do right now was to do just that. That and maybe take a shower to clear her thoughts. On the way to her apartment, Lucy was having difficulty walking in a straight line, Natsu responded to this by wrapping his right arm around her shoulder.

"Hey, Lucy," called one of the fishermen, "that was some catch back there! I bet you and your boyfriend are really excited, huh?"

Lucy was no longer able to walk at this point. She just stood there on the verge of falling down.

Natsu noticed this immediately, and picked her back to carry her the rest of the way. "Come on, let's get you home. You must be coming down with something terrible. Your face is burning up and you can't walk right anymore."

"Wh-what are you doing?" Lucy asked when she came to that she was being held _bridal style_.

"Carrying you home and this is the easiest way."

Lucy just buried her face into Natsu's scarf since her brain had decided to just stop functioning properly, "Okay…"

On the boat, "Those crazy kids. They crack me up." From their perspective, it looked like they were just playing out the roles of a newly wedded couple.

Natsu carried Lucy up to her apartment building, when opening the main door to the building, they encountered the landlady.

"Lucy, I see that you're busy, but you're rent is due today!"

"W-wait it's not what you thi-"

"Please wait a few minutes, Miss. Landlady," said Natsu, cutting Lucy off, "Lucy is really sick and needs to go up to her room." Natsu then got a brilliant idea, "How about I drop Lucy off and give you the money for her rent to you?"

The landlady thought about it, "Hmph, fine, but you better be in my office with the jewels in no more than an hour from now, young man."

"Of course, thank you," Natsu hurried up the stairs to Lucy's door. It was locked, "Um, Lucy, a little help here?"

Lucy fumbled around, looking for her house key and unlocked the door with an unsteady hand. "Th-thank you, Natsu. I'll just get you the jewels to pay the rent and you can head home."

"I'm not going anywhere. What if you need me?"

Lucy buried her face into Natsu's scarf again, "I'll be fine, really," it was muffled through the fabric.

"Don't give me any of that, Lucy," Natsu's normally cheerful tone became serious. "You couldn't even walk by yourself earlier. And your face is still really red." Natsu walked Lucy in further into the apartment and closed the door behind him with his foot. "Now first things first, I need to get you into bed." Lucy did not protest as he walked her to her bedroom, she knew that Natsu had a one track mind and would not give up on something he set his mind to. Being careful, Natsu gently set her down over the comforter. "Lucy, just try and get some rest for now, okay? Where did you put your rent money so I can pay for you?" Lucy just pointed in the direction of the coffee table, she left it there after she came home from her mission. Natsu counted up the money that would cover this month's rent, "I'll be back in a few minutes, Lucy. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." Natsu was telling Lucy not to do anything stupid as he closed the door behind him as he left.

A minute passed before Lucy found herself able to sit up. She did not feel like walking anywhere and decided to give up on the shower, she was not sure if she would be able to stand up during it. A slip and fall accident then a trip to the infirmary was not how she wanted to end her day. Instead, Lucy just decided to take off her boots to get more comfortable. Another minute or so passed and Lucy still was not comfortable. Since she most likely was not going to leave the apartment for the rest of the day, Lucy decided to switch out her day clothes for something more suitable for sleeping. Gathering her thoughts to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other without tripping, Lucy walked to her dresser and grabbed whatever was in her pajama drawer. An oversized shirt and a pair of cotton shorts. Easy enough. Lucy pulled off her day clothes and kicked them underneath the bed for the time being. Then she slipped on the oversized shirt first, it was long enough to pass for a nightgown, but she was still going to put on the shorts and she did so not a minute too soon. Natsu came back right after she had finished pulling them up all the way.

"Good, you're dressed," Natsu said nonchalantly. "But you really should lay back down, the more rest you get the better you'll feel." Natsu looked outside the window to see the sun setting, "Wendy is probably heading back to Fairy Hills about now, so I can't ask her to heal you right now. I'll have to ask her tomorrow. Until then," Natsu returned his attention to Lucy, "try and not get any sicker, okay, Lucy?"

"Okay, Natsu," Lucy hid underneath her comforter to hide her returning blush.

"Good," Natsu ruffled Lucy's hair earning an annoyed groan from her. "Now I'm gonna eat something, are you hungry?"

"Not really, maybe just a glass of water would be nice."

"Got it!" Natsu ran off to the kitchen.

Tap. Tap. "Lucy, let me in," said Happy from the other side of the window.

Lucy shuffled towards the window to let Happy in, "Hi there, did you miss us?"

"Yeah, you and Natsu left me!"

"Sorry about that. I had to make sure he didn't destroy half the town."

"Aye! Then it's okay, Lucy." Happy let out a big yawn, "Good night, Lushy."

"Good night, Happy," to be perfectly honest, after that long day, sleep sounded like a good idea.

"Lucy, here's your, oh, you fell asleep," Natsu chuckled, "I guess that's a good thing. But still, you're a real weirdo, Lucy, but I like that about you." Natsu placed the glass of water on her nightstand. "Night, Happy. Night, Lucy." He would have himself a meal before joining the two sleeping forms. After he was full, cleared the dishes he used and turned off the lights, Natsu crawled into what was unofficially his side of the bed. Before closing his eyes he took one last look at Lucy and brushed away a few stray hairs from her sleeping face, "Feel better soon, okay?"

"Natsu…" Lucy mumbled in her sleep.

"I'm right here, Luce," Natsu pulled her in closer, "I'll always be. I promise."

He closed his eyes, but he did not fall asleep right away. There were things that happened today that he could not think about at the time when they happened. Like why did he burn where he was sitting at the guild after Lucy had finished telling what happened during her mission? Why does Lucy keep getting pink at the weirdest times? Well, Natsu had decided that she was getting sick on that one, but he did not know what she had. Maybe she got sick from her mission. No, that could not have it, she had been acting weird since before she left for that mission. Also, why do people keep mistaking him to be Lucy's boyfriend. He was a boy that was her friend, but not her boyfriend. His concentration was broken when Lucy started snuggling into his chest and mumbled something about it being warm. Natsu smirked, "Weirdo." He decided to once again sleep on the issue until tomorrow. Maybe Lucy would feel more like talking then. "But you're my weirdo."

Lucy, Natsu, and Happy all had pleasant dreams that night.

**Whoo! That was a longer chapter than usual, I hope you followers enjoyed your new year present. Thanks for reading, I'll try to update soon. I'd like to thank Celtika82, WhiteWinterStar, SnowDragonSlayerTasha, and FrostDragonSlayer for the reviews for the last chapter. Once again, they brightened my day. **


	7. Gone Fishin'

**Hi everyone! Heads up, I'm going back to school soon and I may not be able to update as regularly as I have.**

**DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima**

When Lucy woke up the next morning she felt… cold. Natsu had left at some point that morning before she had woken up. Though she supposed under normal circumstances her bed would have felt warm in the morning if she had not gotten used to having Natsu sleep in it every other night. "Huh? What's this," asked Lucy when she saw a piece of paper folded over on her nightstand next to the glass of water she never drank last night.

_Lucy, _

_I went out to get Wendy. I shouldn't be gone long depending when you read this._

_Natsu_

It was Natsu's crude handwriting alright and it gave Lucy a small smile on her face. If what he said on the note was true, he should be back soon because the side he had slept on had lost all its warmth meaning he had been gone a while.

"Lucy, are you awake yet?"

"Shh, Happy, not so loud. What if Lucy is still sleeping?"

"I just woke up," Lucy called.

Natsu dashed off in the direction where Lucy's voice came from, leaving for Wendy behind, "Mr. Natsu, please wait!"

"Sorry, Wendy," Natsu apologized. He carefully observed Lucy's face, "Well you're not all red anymore, so that's good. Having you been feeling weird since you woke up, Lucy?"

"No, I feel just fine, Natsu," in all honesty, Lucy did feel fine. Perhaps her little breakdown was like breaking a fever, it just had to get to its highest point before it could start going down and become controllable. Lucy started to get out of bed before Natsu stopped her and said to sit back down.

"Even if you feel fine right now, I still think that it's a good idea to let Wendy have a look at you."

"Yes, Miss. Lucy, if you have caught something, it is best to take care of it early on." Wendy casted one of her basic healing spells. "That's strange, I can't feel anything wrong." Wendy looked at Lucy, "Maybe whatever you had finally passed."

"Y-yeah, maybe," Lucy said nervously.

"Well, I'm just glad to see that you're better," exclaimed Natsu, giving Lucy a quick hug. Luckily to defend her case of not being sick, Lucy did not blush from the hug. "I wouldn't want you to be sick again."

"Again? This is the first time I have been sick for a while," Lucy decided to play along with the being sick at the moment.

"I don't mean recently, I mean last year. Don't you remember what time of the year it is?"

Lucy thought about it. It was early spring, what was in the spring time… "Oh!" Lucy exclaimed with realization. "It's the Cherry Blossom Festival!"

"That's right," Wendy exclaimed, "I almost forgot that you were sick last year, Miss. Lucy."

"When I came to pick her up, she told me that she wasn't going."

"It wasn't my fault, I got sick," Lucy whined.

"Which is why I want you to be able to go this year," Natsu ruffled Lucy's hair and made her bedhead even messier.

Wendy became confused, "You said the petals were beautiful, Miss. Lucy. If you didn't go last year, how do you know what they look like?"

Lucy smiled, "I still saw them," she recalled, "one of the trees floated down the river outside my window. It was Na-"

Natsu cut her off with his hand, "I-I have no idea what you're talking about," Natsu shifted his eyes nervously as if the guild Master was about to appear out of nowhere. He ducked his head to Lucy's ear, "And it was never proven that it was me."

"Right, what I meant to say was that one of the trees just happened to float by my apartment. Right Natsu?"

"That's the story and we're sticking with it," said Natsu, still very nervous, his arm casually slung over Lucy's shoulders.

"Of course it is," Lucy unwrapped herself from Natsu's hold and got up. "Anyways, I need to get ready for the day. Meet me up at the guild later, Natsu?"

"Okay, but are you sure that you don't need my help for anything?"

"I'll be fine, if I'm not there in half an hour, then you can be worried that something went wrong."

Natsu did not like the sound of that, but he agreed, "Fine, but if I come here and you're perfectly fine and had me worrying for nothing?" Natsu tried to look at the brighter side of things.

"Then I'll agree to whatever mission that you want to do."

"Deal. You coming, Wendy?"

"In a moment, Mr. Natsu. First I would like to ask Miss. Lucy about her symptoms before thinking her as completely well first."

"Okay," Natsu gave a wide smile, "that makes sense. See ya in a little bit!"

After the door closed behind Natsu and they could see him from Lucy's window, Wendy asked, "So Natsu told me that you have been turning red a lot lately?"

"Yes," Lucy admitted.

"Can you tell me more about when it happened, Mr. Natsu just told me 'at weird times.'" Lucy explained the instances that she felt that were acceptable for Wendy to know about, like yesterday with what happened with the bouquet. Wendy thought about it, it was her turn to blush a little bit, "Just one more question. Are you in love with Mr. Natsu?"

Lucy thought that Wendy was such a bold girl for asking that question at such a young age. "I… um…" The blush that Lucy thought she had finally gotten control over had returned hard as ever.

Wendy giggled a bit, then apologized. "Mr. Natsu was right, but not in what he thought. You are sick, Miss. Lucy, lovesick."

"D-don't say it like that," Lucy pleaded. "It's really embarrassing." Then a thought came to Lucy, "... You're not really Mira pretending to be Wendy, are you?"

"Wh-what, of course I'm not! What can I do to prove that to you, Miss. Lucy?"

It was actually Wendy afterall with that reaction. "Never mind, it's fine Wendy, but you can't tell anybody about this. Okay?"

"Yes, but if you like him so much, why haven't you told Mr. Natsu?"

"Well… the thing is, Wendy… It's not that easy," Lucy admitted, she did try to say something yesterday. However, she was interrupted and was actually glad because she may have completely messed up her relationship with Natsu by saying something too soon. "It may be too early to say something just yet. I should probably get ready."

"I understand, Miss. Lucy," Wendy bowed to excuse herself. "But before I leave, I don't think it's too early to tell Mr. Natsu how you feel. If you're worried about his feelings, I think there is a chance that he likes you back. Afterall, he did remember how much you wanted to go to the festival last year and is making sure that you get to go this year." Wendy left Lucy with that food for thought before leaving.

Lucy touched her cheek and sure enough it was warm. She would have to wait a while before heading out to the guild or Natsu would get worried again. "Let's see, what should I wear?" Lucy decided it would just be best to wear her usual outfit that she had started wearing since the timeskip. Teeth brushed, clothes on, and hair brushed; Lucy was ready for the day. She had a feeling that day was going to be great!

"Yo! Lucy! It's been forty-five minutes since I left, you know what that means," boomed Natsu who was climbing through the window.

Strike that last thought. Today was going to be a long day. Knowing Natsu, he was going to choose a difficult job that most definitely involve taking out a giant monster. Wait, has it really been that long since she told Natsu that she was going to meet up with him? It felt like she had plenty of time left. Where did it all go?

Lucy sighed, "Okay, Natsu, what job do you want to do?" Lucy dreaded the answer knowing he probably already had the flyer clenched in his hand right now.

"Oh, I don't want to do a normal job."

What?

"Really," Lucy was confused, "... You're not planning on secretly doing another S-Class mission are you?"

"No," Natsu thought about the idea, "but that would be real fun, wouldn't it?!"

"No it wouldn't!"

"What are you talking about? We did great last time. Anyways, that's not what I wanted to do."

"What is it then," Lucy asked cautiously.

"I want you to go with me fishing!"

That was easy enough, better than fighting a monster that was the size of a house or a mission that they are not even supposed to do. "Okay," Lucy agreed, she headed towards her bookshelf to choose a book like she normally does when she goes out with Natsu when he wants to fish. Just when she found a book that matched her mood and started pulling it out of place, Natsu's hand stopped her and pushed it back into place. Lucy turned to Natsu to give him her annoyed look, which was really a pout.

'So cute,' Natsu thought.

"You won't be needing that today," Natsu stated.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean you're not just going to be there reading while I fish," Natsu started explaining, "and having a pole standing up nearby doesn't count. Today, you're actually going to learn how to fish." Natsu's face was just beaming.

* * *

At the usual place where Natsu normally went fishing with Happy, he and Lucy were standing there getting ready to get started.

"Let's see, here's our bucket to catch the fish, bait, fishing line, hooks…" Natsu started listing off the items that they were going to use. Lucy had the look of a student bored in class but was trying to at least _look _interested. Afterall, it was what Natsu wanted to do. "Okay, that is about everything that we are going to need, except for one last thing," Natsu turned around to pick something off of the ground, "these!" He held up two fishing rods. "They're old rods, but they get the job done."

"It fine, Natsu," Lucy took one of the fishing rods. At least Natsu had already lined, hooked, and baited it for her. Otherwise she got the strong feeling that she was going to be there for a long time before any actual fishing got done.

"Now we have to cast out our lines. Do you want to try or do you want me to do the first one for you?"

"Can you do the first one, please?" She really did not feel like making a fool out of herself right off the bat.

"Sure," Natsu took the fishing rod Lucy was holding out of her hands and casted the line out with ease, "pretty awesome, right?"

Which part was supposed to be awesome? Fishing in general or his casting job? "Y-yeah," it was rather weak sounding. Natsu frowned at the response, but he turned away so Lucy could not see it.

"Anyways, now, we wait," Natsu sat down with his own fishing rod after he had handed back Lucy hers.

"Wait? For how long," Lucy whined.

"Until a fish bites," Natsu said like it was the most obvious thing, "or for ten to fifteen minutes then try casting our lines somewhere else. One more thing, you can't be loud or you'll scare the fish away."

Lucy just nodded her head and hoped that this fishing trip was going to be over soon. She closed her eyes in an attempt for the time pass by faster. After a minute or two, Lucy felt some warmth on her back and over her hands. Natsu was giving her a back hug! Lucy was trying her best to keep her blush under control.

"I just noticed you're not holding the pole right," Natsu told Lucy as he adjusted her hands to where they needed to be. "Here, this way you'll be able to pull the fish in much easier."

"O-oh…"

"Hm? No need to be embarrassed, Lucy." Natsu chuckled, poking at Lucy's tinted cheeks. He did not think that this was a 'weird' time to blush. " I should've told you that from the beginning." He returned to his pole that was starting to bow. "Alright, I caught one!" He unhooked it and placed it into the bucket that was filled with water.

"What happened to being quiet?"

Natsu laughed, "See, you learned something," he said as he ruffled Lucy's hair again that day.

"Very funny," Lucy mumbled. A few more minutes passed and Natsu had already caught another fish, then another, then another, then another… "You're just showing off now, aren't you?" Poor Lucy was still on her first cast.

"I have no idea what you're talking about, Luce," Natsu said casually as he reeled in his latest catch.

"That's it, I quit," Lucy left her pole where it was and started walking away.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home," Lucy gave a huff.

"You can't give up yet! It was only your first time- Wait Lucy, come back, you caught something." True enough, Lucy's pole was starting to bow as well.

She ran back and tried pulling it back and up, but it starting pulling her closer into the water. "N-Natsu, p-please help!" Lucy struggled as she tried to keep the fish from getting away.

Natsu wrapped his hands around the pole hand began helping to reel it in, "This one's strong! I wonder what it is!" He gave one last pull before the fish was out of the water. When the fish was revealed, the two of them just stared at it not knowing how to react. Natsu was the first one to speak, "I've never seen one of these fish before… It kinda looks like a pink butt. I don't think I want to eat that…"

"Idiot! It doesn't look like a butt! It's obviously a heart shape!"

"Hmm, no, it still looks like a butt."

"Either way, I'm throwing it back in…"

"But it was your first catch!"

"You said so yourself, you've never seen this fish before. So it might be rare. Also, you said you didn't want to eat it. Be free, heart-fish!"

"Bye, pink butt-fish."

"It didn't look like a butt! But now I bet I can catch more fish than you, Natsu!"

"What? No way, I have a huge lead already, but if you really want to, I'm all fired up!"

"Whatever, I think my fish should be worth ten fish."

"Oh? Then five of those points should be mine since I'm the one who noticed your pole and helped you caught it."

"But that's not fair!"

As the two had their playful fight, the released fish swam further away, chanting its name, "Luvdisc, Luvdisc."

* * *

At the end of the day, Natsu had caught more fish than Lucy. Who had managed to catch one very small fish by herself, but I got away after she tried to unhook it.

"Time to go eat! Don't look so sad, Lucy, I'll share my fish with you! I would never let you go hungry." Natsu slung his free arm across Lucy's shoulders. His other was being used to carry the bucket of fish.

"You sound like Happy," brooded Lucy, still sore about losing so badly.

"Aye!" Lucy could not help but giggle at the impersonation. "But enough of that, let's get going, you're only upset 'cause you're hungry."

"That's not it!" Lucy stomach growled. Natsu laughed. "Okay, fine, I'm a little hungry."

"Let's go then," said Natsu as he walked the direction to Lucy's apartment.

Inside they found Happy waiting for them. "Hey, Happy," greeted Natsu, "how was Carla?"

"She was great! She actually thought about taking the fish I offered her. That reminds me, did you catch any fish?"

"Yeah, I caught loads," Natsu boasted as he held up the bucket that overflowed with fish.

"What about you, Lucy?"

Lucy looked away not wanting to answer that question. "She did great for her first time! Almost caught one all by herself," Natsu patted her head. "Let's eat!"

**Hope you enjoyed chapter 7! So if any of you have any experience with Pokémon, you may have noticed my not so subtle reference in this chapter ;)**

**[EDIT: 3 Jan 2014] Celtika82 brought it to my attention there was a slight continuity error with canon events that I forgot about with Wendy in the Cherry Blossom story. I have adjusted the scene to connect better with canon.**


	8. Mission: Success or Fail?

**Scene from picks from after Natsu left Lucy's house with Wendy.**

**DISCLAIMER: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima**

Natsu walked to the guild very slowly that day, trying to give Wendy a chance to catch up so may he could talk to her about Lucy's sickness alone. Even though Wendy said that Lucy was just fine, Natsu could not shake the feeling that something was off. He stopped walking when he was halfway there and decided just to wait. Not too long after that, the youngest dragon slayer was walking her way back to the guild.

"Yo, Wendy," Natsu called.

"Mr. Natsu, you're not at the guild already?"

"Nah, not yet. I wanted to ask you something."

"What is, Mr. Natsu," Wendy asked.

"Are you sure Lucy is fine? I'm not saying I don't believe you," Natsu insisted, "I'm just, you know, worried."

Wendy smiled, "I promise that Miss. Lucy is perfectly healthy, Mr. Natsu." Her suspicions were proving to be right so far. Okay not necessarily her suspicions, sometimes when Wendy was at the guild Cana would point out to her whenever Lucy and Natsu were having a 'moment.'

"Mr. Natsu, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course, Wendy, anything."

"How do you know if you like someone, Mr. Natsu." Wendy was curious on finding out Natsu's own feelings straight from the mouth after hearing Lucy's.

Natsu gave Wendy a confused look, "Why are you asking that, Wendy? You should know what it's like to like someone, you have lots of friends."

"I don't mean that kind of like, Mr. Natsu, I mean the kind where you have a crush on someone."

Oh, Wendy meant that kind of 'like.'

"Wait, Wendy, why do you need to know that!? You're too young," Natsu gulped.

"I don't mean for me, Mr. Natsu," Wendy laughed nervously. "I'm asking what it means to you."

Natsu gave a sigh of relief, he did not want Wendy having any relationship drama in her life just yet. She did ask a good question, what did liking someone mean to him? He knew it meant that someone was special, no, that was not the word he was looking for... _precious_ to them.

"Well, um," Natsu stumbled over his words, "I guess even though you care about all your other friends, you care about one person in particular a little more dearly." Natsu scratched the back of his head, a blush starting to form on his own face.

"Like how?"

"Umm…" For some reason, Lucy came to mind, "... You think about them a lot." Natsu looked at the ground and softly smiled. "And always want to protect them." Protect. That is one thing always wanted Lucy to be, protected. Safe. Of course he wanted that with all of his friends, but Lucy especially. Wait… Thinks a person is precious, he has described Lucy as such before; thinks about about them a lot, that one was self explanatory; protect, he always finds the need to rush in and save her.

Natsu thought about it, 'Man… I _am_ an idiot!' he mentally face palmed. 'I knew Lucy made me feel weird, but I never considered… It all makes sense now!'

Wendy was not sure how much time passed since Natsu stopped talking, "Um, Mr. Natsu, are you alright?"

Natsu snapped out of his thoughts, "Huh? Oh, yeah, just fine," he dully said. His face felt hot.

"You were thinking for a long time," Wendy stated. "If you don't mind my asking, do you like someone, Mr. Natsu?"

Natsu lightly blushed and smiled into his scarf, "Yeah, I do."

"Are you going to confesses soon? Who is it? Who is it?" Wendy asked even though she was almost positive she knew it was the girl he had been worrying about like no tomorrow the past few days. She looked a lot like Mira when she asked that.

Natsu placed his index finger to his mouth and smirked, "That's my secret, Wendy." Wendy pouted. "Cheer up, I answered most of your questions," Natsu joked. "Why did you ask them anyways?"

"I was just curious, Mr. Natsu," Wendy smiled.

"Okay… Say, Wendy, you wouldn't happen to know what you're supposed to do with a person you like?" Natsu had a some sort of idea what was supposed to happen after seeing Alzack and Bisca, they got married and had a kid. Despite that, he had no idea what was supposed to happen in that timespan between friendship and marriage because he was gone for seven years. It was too soon for the latter.

Wendy blushed, not used to giving relationship advice, "W-well normally you ask them on a, uh, um date."

Dates. Natsu has heard of them before but did not have the slightest clue to what you are supposed to do on them. "Okay… What exactly happens then," Natsu had his I-don't-get-it face.

Wendy grew more flustered, "I don't know, I just know it when two people do some sort of activity together. Sorry, but I don't know what makes it different from two friends hanging out."

"That's okay, Wendy," Natsu smiled, "I can figure it out." Before long, the two of them has reached the guild. "Oh there you are, Happy, when did you get here?"

"After we left Lucy's apartment, one moment you were right behind me and the next I couldn't find you. So I decided to wait for you here.

"Sorry about that, buddy. I'm going to look at the request board real fast."

"Aye!"

Natsu looked at the board to see any with good pay, "Oh! This one looks good!"

Mira who just happened to be passing by, "Oh, that's in the same town where Lucy just finished a job."

Back on the board the flyer went. Natsu looked at the board for any other potential jobs, nothing he was interested in and if he was it required a very long train ride. He sighed and sat back down disappointed in the lack of jobs he would want to do. It was about twenty-five minutes since he had left Lucy's apartment and if she was late he did not have a job already chosen. Maybe he would get lucky and Lucy would walk in completely ready. Five minutes passed and there was no sign of Lucy anywhere. As long as she was fine, Lucy would have agreed to any job that Natsu had picked. Downside, there was no job that Natsu wanted to do. Either way it was time to pick her up. "Happy, let's go pick up Lucy, she's taking too long."

"Coming Natsu," Happy flew towards Natsu.

'I'm going over with no job picked out. Can't believe it, but, hey, we can still hang out at the guild together.' That reminded Natsu of the conversation he had with Wendy. 'Maybe… Maybe I can try one of those date things that Wendy mentioned! But how do I do that? Let's see she mentioned two people doing an activity together… Can't do a job.'

"Natsu, are you okay, you've been walking slow all day."

"Just thinking about something, Happy."

"That's scary! It must be serious if Natsu is thinking about something!"

"Hey!" Even if he did say something about it, Natsu did not pay much attention to Happy's comment.

'What activities could I invite her to? If it just at the guild it would seem like any other day. Maybe if I can just take her somewhere…"

"Natsu! You're acting really weird! Here, eat a fish," Happy offered thinking that fish could cure anything.

"Fish?" Then Natsu came up with a new idea. "I know, I'll take her fishing!"

"Take who fishing, Natsu?"

"Lucy," Natsu answered smiling.

"Aye sir! Are we picking her up to do that right now," Happy asked.

Natsu remembered that Wendy said that dates were between two people, so would it count if Happy came with them? Probably not. Natsu turned his head, pulling his scarf up, "Actually, Happy, I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but," Natsu's face started to blush, "I kinda want it to be just Lucy and me." When he looked up, Natsu expected to see a sad Happy.

"Pfft!" Happy laughed with paws up to his mouth, "Natsu wants to take Lucy on a date because he likes her!"

"Don't just say it like that! Anyways, I'm not even sure if it would count as a date. So please don't tell anyone that, Happy."

"Okay, Natsu," Happy said in between giggles. He started flying back to the guild to meet up with Carla, "Have fun on your date, Natsu," Happy teased.

"Right," Natsu said to himself. "There's nothing to freak out about, you've asked Lucy to go fishing with you plenty of times. Yeah, I can do this!" Natsu talked himself out of nervousness and was able to casually ask Lucy to go fishing with him no problem.

'She's going to be so impressed by my fishing skills, I just know it!' Natsu thought to himself.

* * *

The fishing trip ended well and they ate a good portion of the fish he had caught that day.

"Goodnight, Lucy! See ya tomorrow," Natsu called as he got ready to leave out the window. Lucy yelled at him telling him to use the door. Natsu ignored the comment. "Say, I had fun today, Lucy."

"Yeah, I did, too," Lucy agreed. Mission Take Lucy on a Date: SUCCESS. "We should hang out like that more often," Lucy giggled. Correction, mission failed, Lucy thought of it as hanging out and not as a date!

Natsu hid his shock at the response, "Yeah, anytime you'd like. Goodnight." He lept out of the window and walked his way back to his house.

Upon arriving, Natsu headed straight for his hammock, 'What did I do wrong? She thought of it as hanging out. Did I miss a step?' Considering he made the plan as he went along, it made sense that he would miss something. He tried to think about what he missed, then some words he had overheard from other people's conversations rang in his ears.

_Would you like to go on a date with me?_

Natsu facepalmed himself, that's what he forgot. 'I forgot to tell her it was supposed to be a date!'

"I'm an idiot!"

"Now Natsu, you shouldn't say those things about yourself." Happy said like an adult figure. "They're bad for your self esteem."

Natsu just groaned and threw his pillow over his head, "Maybe I'll do better next time," Natsu whispered to himself.

**Plot twist, sorta?! I bet you thought the two of them were just hanging out last chapter, huh? To everyone that comment on the last chapter, thank you. I honestly was not expecting so many, and some of them gave good feedback. So thank you again. See ya next chapter!**


	9. Before the Job

**Disclaimer: Fairy Tail and all related characters belong to Hiro Mashima**

Whilst getting ready for the day, Lucy looked at her calendar and circled the the date for the Cherry Blossom Festival with a bold red she uncapped a finer tipped marker to write _Don't miss_ on the square she circled.

Walking into the kitchen, Lucy thought out loud, "I wonder if I should make breakfast or order something when I get to the guild." She opened cabinets and pushed aside their contents to see what she had to work with. "Maybe I should make something, I don't want the food I bought to go to waste."

"Sounds good to me," a voice spoke.

Lucy turned around to face where the voice was coming from. Sure enough it was Natsu climbing through her window with Happy following.

"I'll eat whatever you're making," said Natsu claiming his place at the table.

"Aye," exclaimed Happy who was also taking a seat.

"Woah, woah, woah," retorted Lucy, "I'm not making a meal for three by myself." She started walking towards where Natsu was seated and grabbed him by his upper arm and pulled him out of his chair, "I know for a fact that you know how to cook in the kitchen. So you're helping me."

"Do I have to," Natsu complained like a child.

"If you want to eat breakfast here, yes," Lucy answered dragging him out of the dining area and into the kitchen.

"We got here too early, Happy," Natsu said with a sad tone.

"Aye."

"Okay, Natsu, you don't have to cook," Lucy said with a smile.

"Really?"

"Yes, but I don't know what you and Happy will be eating since I'll be cooking for one," Lucy teased.

"What? But Lucy… I'm hungry and you've cooked for me and Happy before," Natsu whined.

"And you helped me cook the other day, Natsu." Lucy patiently waited for Natsu to reply to her. Nothing came out of his mouth, it only became a scowl of defeat. "There, there," Lucy said and patted his head, "don't be so grumpy now." She could not help giggling at her partners scowl, a small and less noticeable blush dawned upon her face.

'I'm not sure if he realizes it, but Natsu can be pretty cute sometimes,' Lucy thought to herself.

The meal was prepared without other complaints after that other than the occasional dispute over what should be cooked.

* * *

Walking to the guild that morning was rather uneventful, there were no close calls of Lucy falling into the river this time, much to Lucy's pleasure.

"Say, Lucy," said Natsu as an attempt to get her attention.

"Yeah, Natsu?"

"Do you wanna take a job this week? You know since the guild will not be accepting jobs next week because of the festival. Of course, unless there's a real emergency."

Lucy thought about it, "Sure, that would be gre-" she was cut off by stumbling on a crack on the path, but recovered in time. "That would be great," Lucy repeated, but faster than the first time.

"Awesome! Let's go pick out a job and we'll be on our way!" Natsu stopped when the riverbed ended and extended his arm to offer his hand, "Need a hand down?"

Lucy nodded and carefully took his hand, 'It's so warm,' Lucy thought. To be honest, she was a little sad when she had to let go once she had both feet on the ground.

"Th-thank you, Natsu," Lucy said more unsteadily than she intended. She mentally cursed herself because she felt her cheeks warming up as she said that.

"It's no problem, Luce," Natsu replied. The two walked along side with a short awkward silence.

"They lllllllllllike each other," Happy exclaimed.

Neither of them said anything, only started walking faster towards the guild. When they arrived, the guild was much empty than they expected it to be. Practically all the usual members were missing.

"Hello, Natsu, Happy, Lucy," called Mira from behind the bar, smiling.

"Hi, Mira," greeted as she took a seat at the bar. "Where is everyone?"

"Oh, they're all out taking jobs so that they can relax next week," Mira explained. After saying so, Mira crouched down to retrieve a few glasses from under the bar top, with only a few clinks to be heard. "Would you like something to drink, Lucy? I suggest maybe some juice since it is a little early for something like beer."

"That sounds nice, Mira, whatever is fine. Please and thank you," said Lucy.

"Are you and Natsu going to take a job as well," asked Mira as she noticed Natsu in front of the request board in deep thought.

"Yeah," said Lucy as she accepted her glass of juice from Mira. She took a small sip, "So what are you up to, Mira?"

"Oh, the usual," Mira said placing the freshly cleaned mugs back in place so that they would be ready for the next time they are used. "Keeping track of the jobs people accept," Mira wiped down an imaginary spill from the counter. "Handling the food," she walked into the kitchen for a few moments and came out wiping her hands off like she had done some cooking. "And taking care of my younger siblings."

"You sound really busy, Mira."

"Don't worry about it," Mira smiled, "I actually find it really fun. Speaking of really fun…" Mira glanced at the direction where Natsu was coming from.

"Hey, Lucy, do you wanna take this job," asked Natsu as he handed her the flyer. It was an out of town mission to take out a monster that had been attacking a trading town.

"Okay, that sounds easy enough. Mira, we'll be taking this job, okay?" Lucy showed Mira the flyer.

"That one, okay," Mira opened the large book that contained all the information about the jobs and the guild members that accepted them. "Natsu...Lucy… and Happy," Mira mumbled to herself as she wrote down their names and the time they had accepted the job. "Okay, everythings is almost done, just one more thing," Mira flipped to a page that contained a pocket and pulled out an envelope. "Here you go," she said as she handed the envelope, "the client for this job has already provided transportation. Have a safe trip," she waved the three off as they left.

"Bye Mira," they all said in unison while stepping out the guild doors.

"I'm going to pack a few things for the trip," stated Lucy. "Meet you at the train station in about half an hour?"

"Aye sir! That sounds good to me, Lucy. Right Natsu? Natsu," Happy was concerned when Natsu was not responding.

Natsu looked very gloomy and kept saying under his breath, "Stupid trains, stupid transportation, stupid motion sickness."

Lucy rubbed his back a few times before stopping, "Don't be like that, Natsu. It'll be over before you know it."

"Trains are still stupid…"

"I know you feel that way, but you really should go pack for the trip, okay?"

"Okay," Natsu sighed not happy at all about the thought of riding a train.

* * *

Back at her apartment, Lucy grabbed the backpack that she had kept for longer trips and packed in a few essentials that she would need. With fifteen minutes to spare, Lucy decided to browse through her bookshelf to find a book to pass the time on the train. Though, she did not expect to get any real reading done because of Natu's motion sickness. Her finger traced over the titles of multiple books until it stopped at _that _one. The diary she had been avoiding ever since she had first written in it. Lucy glanced over her shoulder towards the window. No sign of Natsu. She was so paranoid that Natsu was going to burst in at any second, that she double checked that her front door was locked.

With a shaky sigh, Lucy removed the diary key from her keyring and unlocked the small red lock that protected her most embarrassing secret. Should she write in it? After all, that is what the book was meant for and she did have time to spare. Lucy dipped her quill pen into her vial of ink and started writing in a similar style as the first time and hastily wrote her thoughts of the past few days on the next clean page.

_In the beginning of their relationship, the princess did not understand her feelings for the dragon. They even made her feel faint at times. There were even days where it felt like fate was pushing signs say that the two should get together. Very much so after the princess that ran into a knight that proclaimed his love to her. The dragon did not like that at all. Their relationship changed over time, there were many mornings where the princess would find herself surrounded by the dragon in a very protective manner, who too was sleeping. Even though the princes started to understand what her feelings meant, she had unexpected help from a rain woman who gave very helpful advice. Even a younger dragon that the princess had become friends with gave her advice the wise beyond her years. However, the princess is not sure how she is going to have that "Happily ever after" if she can't even figure out how to tell the dragon how she feels._

Lucy turned the page and debated on whether or not she could continue writing. She did not.

She then dated the page in the upper righthand corner. She gave the ink a moment to dry before closing the diary and locking it once more. Carefully, Lucy replaced it on the shelf and walked to the restroom and closed the door behind her. Did she just write what she thought she wrote? She did. Again, Lucy had written her life like it was a fairytale, but she supposed if the diary were to be discovered, it would be better for it to be encoded rather than direct. Looking at the mirror, Lucy could saw that her face had a very healthy blush on it. She had to calm down or else she might worry Natsu again. Lucy fumbled with the handle for cold water on her sink and waited for the water to come bubbling out of the faucet. She splashed a few handfuls of water on her face until the blush had finally died down.

"Okay, what time is it?" When she looked at the clock, Lucy realized she had to hurry or she would miss her rendezvous with Natsu and Happy. She took one last look in the mirror to make sure that she calmed down enough before leaving. "Oh, I still haven't picked out a book," Lucy scurried to her bookshelf and scanned for something that she would want to read. In the middle of her searching she heard her window slide open.

"Lucy, are you ready yet," asked Natsu as he climbed in for the second time that day.

"Almost," Lucy answered, "I just need to pick out a book and I'll be ready!"

"Okay," Natsu wandered aimlessly around the apartment and stopped when he saw Lucy's calendar. More specifically what she had written down on it.

Lucy pulled out a book that she decided that she would want to read on the trip and slipped her backpack on, "I'm ready! But I thought I was going to meet the two of you at the train station."

"Aye," said Happy, "but Natsu wanted to pick you up and walk you over.

"Aw, how sweet! You're making me blush," Lucy said in a playful manner as she brought her hands to her cheeks.

"Whatever," said Natsu, back still facing Lucy and Happy. "Let's just go and get this stupid train ride over with already…"

At the train, Lucy was impressed by the one the client had provided tickets for. "Wow, this train looks so nice! It has compartments that can be closed and everything!" Normally, they would have to pay extra for a private compartment, "Maybe the client just wanted to show off the money their trading city brings in."

Natsu on the other hand was not so impressed. "Do you think that they have some sort of spell that prevents motion sickness?"

"I'm not sure, Natsu, we'll just have to find out," Lucy said while looking for a vacant compartment. "Oh, Natsu, let's sit here!"

"Okay," Natsu said arms crossed and shoulders hunched. He could already feel the motion sickness coming.

"Natsu," Lucy started off, "I know this isn't your ideal, but try to make the best of it. Here," Lucy patted to the seat next her's, "you can have the window seat. I read looking out the window while traveling can help prevent motion sickness."

Natsu sighed, "Well, I'm willing to try anything," Natsu took the seat and looked out the window. "I see the inside of the train station," Natsu said sarcastically.

"The train hasn't started moving yet, Natsu," Lucy was not sure how to respond.

"Natsu! Lucy! This train has a dining cart, do you think they have fish?"

"Probably, Happy," answered Lucy. "Did you want to check?"

"Aye! Lucy, do you think you could stay with Natsu? I think the train is going to start moving soon."

Natsu tensed up at this statement, still looking out the window.

"Yeah, I'll stay with him."

"I'll be right back… Maybe," Happy said and giggled after leaving, but not before closing the door to the compartment.

Sure enough, the train whistled and started moving and the only thing that could be heard were the clacks of the train.

"Natsu? How are you feeling," Lucy asked when she did not hear anything from her partner or see any sign of discomfort.

"I feel great , I think this is actually wor-" the train made its first turn out of the station. Natsu was not feeling so well anymore. Going down. As fate would have it, his head landed right into Lucy's lap. "S-sorry," he tried to say while pulling himself up. The train hit a bump. Natsu fell right back down, "S-sorry."

'Don't freak out. Don't freak out,' Lucy kept thinking to herself. 'He can't help it.'

While Natsu was thinking, 'Don't throw up on Lucy! Don't throw up on Lucy! Don't throw up on Lucy…'

"C-can I just s-stay here, please," Natsu asked weakly.

"S-sure. Just don't… Just don't throw up on me."

"T-try not to."

The train hit another bump and Natsu forced down the urge to throw up. Lucy felt horrible for him and tried to comfort Natsu by rubbing her hand in small circles on his back. His moaning seemed to have died down to a minimum with that, so Lucy kept it up for the time being. There was a knock at the door.

Lucy thought it was Happy and simply said, "The door is open."

The door slid open and a woman pushing a cart asked smiling, "Would you like any refreshments?" She was completely unfazed from the scene in front of her as she had seen many like it before.

Lucy, however, gave a small gasp and started to blush furiously. She felt the need to explain herself to the concession lady, "I-it's not what you think! He just gets really bad motion sickness!"

Another train bump made Natsu make a sound of almost throwing up and his grip on the seat tightened.

"Motion sickness, eh?" The concession lady said knowingly. Turning her attention away from Lucy and Natsu, she shifted through the items of her cart. "Here, try giving him this," she handed over a few bottles of ginger ale, a box of ginger snaps, and some ginger hard candies. "Ginger is good for the nausea. Let him have some throughout the ride and after he gets off. And if that doesn't work..." she pulled out one more thing from her cart and revealed a brown paper bag, "it doesn't hurt to have these on hand."

Lucy thanked the concession lady and paid her for the items. "Is there anything that you would like for yourself, miss?"

"Just some water would be nice."

"Certainly. If you need anything else, I'm in the next train cart over."

Lucy thanked her once again and tried to sit Natsu up, "Natsu, sit up, you have to drink this."

Natsu did not protest, then again, he was concentrating on not throwing up. He took one of the bottles Lucy had handed him and smelled the contents. He never understood the name of ginger ale, it had no alcohol in it, but it still had ale in the name. Natsu took small sips of the beverage.

"How do you feel," Lucy asked, moving stray hairs from Natsu's face.

"A little better, I guess," Natsu stared down at the bottle. "I mean, I don't feel like throwing up right this second."

"That's good," Lucy sighed in relief.

Natsu continued to take small sips out of the bottle, "Hey, Lucy? I've been meaning to ask you something."

"What is it, Natsu?"

Natsu took a larger sip from the bottle. There may have been no alcohol in the beverage, but it was the closest to liquid courage that he was going to get to at the moment. He looked Lucy in the eye for the following, "Do you wanna go to the Cherry Blossom Festival…" Duh, Natsu knew the answer to that was a yes. "With me…" Natsu looked at the floorboards for the next part because they suddenly became fascinating, "As a d-date?"

Natsu waited for Lucy's response, he really hoped that the answer was going be "yes" otherwise this was going to be a very long train trip.

**And that's it for this chapter! Hope you enjoyed it (though you probably don't like that cliffhanger…) and thank you to everyone that reviewed the last chapter. Also, I go back to school on Monday, I'll try to keep the updates regular, but you know school has to come first.**


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